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Carnegie Endowment for International Peace 



DIVISION OF ECONOMICS AND HISTORY 

JOHN BATES CLARK, DIRECTOR 



PRELIMINARY ECONOMIC STUDIES OF THE WAR 



EDITED BY 

DAVID KINLEY 

Professor of Political Economy, University of Illinois 
Member of Committee of Research of the Endowment 

No. 16 



NEGRO MIGRATION DURING 

THE WAR 



BY 



EMMETT J. SCOTT 

Secretary-Treasurer, Howard University, 
Washington, D.C. 



NEW YORK 

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS 

AMERICAN BRANCH: 35 West 32nd Street 
LONDON. TORONTO. MELBOURNE. AND BOMBAY 

1920 






COPYRIGHT 1920 

BY THE 

CARNEGIE ENDOWMENT FOR INTERNATIONAL PEACE 
2 Jackson Place, Washington, D. C. 



\ 






fT 



V 



©3I.A571001 



EDITOR'S PREFACE 

I think that no one more capable than Dr. Emmett J. Scott 
could have been found to present to the public a study on the 
subject of this monograph. The topic is one of great public 
importance, and the author is equipped for its treatment both 
by his wide knowledge of the subject and his sympathy with 
the viewpoint of his race. 

The problem of negro labor, its diffusion and its adaptation 
to more numerous kinds of work, are problems not only of 
great public importance but of great difficulty. Whatever views 
one may hold on the general subject of race relations between 
the negroes and the whites in this country, there is no question 
that we can not reach safe conclusions without a full knowledge 
of the facts as they appear to both of the interested parties. 
For that reason this presentation by Dr. Scott is a welcome ad- 
dition to our information on the subject. 

Sympathetically read it will help the whites to understand 
better the negro viewpoint, and will help the negroes to appreciate 
perhaps more fully the difficulties which appear from the white 
viewpoint. This is a field in which Tennyson's words are pre- 
eminently true, that " Knowledge comes, but wisdom lingers." 
Yet we can not hope ever to attain the necessary wisdom ex- 
cepting by an increasing fulness of knowledge. Therefore I 
commend this study to every one who is interested in the ques- 
tion for dispassionate reading and consideration. 

David Kinley. 



Ill 



FOREWORD 

In the preparation of this study I have had the encouragement 
and support of Dr. Robert R. Moton, Principal of the Tuskegee 
Normal and Industrial Institute, Alabama, who generously 
placed at my disposal the facilities of the Institute's Division of 
Records and Research, directed by Mr. Monroe N. Work, the 
editor of the Negro Year Book. Mr. Work has cooperated 
with me in the most thoroughgoing manner. I have also had 
the support of the National League on Urban Conditions and 
particularly of the Chicago branch of which Dr. Robert E. 
Park is President and of which Mr. T. Arnold Hill is Secre- 
tary. Mr. Hill placed at my disposal his first assistant, Mr. 
Charles S. Johnson, graduate student of the University of 
Chicago, to whom I am greatly indebted. I must also make 
acknowledgment of my indebtedness to Dr. Carter G. Woodson, 
Director of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and 
History, Incorporated, Washington, D. C, for placing at my 
disposal the facilities of his organization. 

The work of investigation was divided up by assigning Mr. 
Work to Alabama, Georgia and Florida; Mr. Johnson to Mis- 
sissippi and to centers in Missouri, Illinois, Wisconsin and 
Indiana, while the eastern centers were assigned to Mr. T. 
Thomas Fortune, Trenton, New Jersey, a former editor of the 
New York Age, and a publicist and investigator of well known 
ability. It is upon the reports submitted by these investigators 
that this study rests. I can not speak too warmly of the en- 
thusiastic and painstaking care with which these men have 
labored to secure the essential facts with regard to the migration 
of the negro people from the South. 

Emmett J. Scott. 

Washington, D. C, 
June 5, 1919. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I Introduction 3 

II Causes of the Migration 13 

III Stimulation of the Movement 2G 

IV The Spread of the Movement 38 

V The Call of the Self-Sufficient North 49 

VI The Draining of the Black Belt 59 

VII Efforts to Check the Movement 72 

VIII Effects of the Movement on the South 86 

IX The Situation in St. Louis 95 

X Chicago and Its Environs 102 

XI The Situation at Points in the Middle West 119 

XII The Situation at Points in the East 134 

XIII Remedies for Relief by National Organizations . . 143 

XIV Public Opinion Regarding the Migration 152 

Bibliography 175 

Index 185 



NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 



CHAPTER I 

Introduction 

Within the brief period of three years following the outbreak 
of the great war in Europe, more than four hundred thousand 
negroes suddenly moved north. In extent this movement is 
without parallel in American history, for it swept on thousands 
of the blacks from remote regions of the South, depopulated 
entire communities, drew upon the negro inhabitants of practi- 
cally every city of the South, and spread from Florida to the 
western limits of Texas. In character it was not without prece- 
dent. In fact, it bears such a significant resemblance to the 
migration to Kansas in 1879 and the one to Arkansas and Texas 
in 1888 and 1889 that this of 1916-1917 may be regarded as 
the same movement with intervals of a number of years. 

Strange as it might seem the migration of 1879 first attracted 
general notice when the accusation was brought that it was a 
political scheme to transplant thousands of negro voters from 
their disfranchisement in the South to States where their votes 
might swell the Republican majority. Just here may be found 
a striking analogy to one of the current charges brought against 
the movement nearly forty years later. The congressional in- 
quiry which is responsible for the discovery of the fundamental 
causes of the movement was occasioned by this charge and suc- 
ceeded in proving its baselessness.^ 

The real causes of the migration of 1879 were not far to 
seek. The economic cause was the agricultural depression in 
the lower Mississippi Valley. But by far the most potent factor 
in effecting the movement was the treatment received by negroes 
at the hands of the South. More specifically, as expressed by 
the leaders of the movement and refugees themselves, they were 
a long series of oppression, injustice and violence extending over 

1 Congressional Record, 46th Cong., 2d sess., vol. X, p. 104. 

3 



4 • NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE V/AR 

a period of fifteen years; the convict system by which the courts 
are permitted to inflict heavy fines for trivial offenses and the 
sheriff to hire the convicts to planters on the basis of peonage; 
denial of political rights; long continued persecution for political 
reasons; a system of cheating by landlords and storekeepers 
which rendered it impossible for tenants to make a living, and 
the inadequacy of school facilities.^ Sworn public documents 
show that nearly 3,500 persons, most of whom were negroes, 
were killed between 1866 and 1879, and their murderers were 
never brought to trial or even arrested. Several massacres of 
negroes occurred in the parishes of Louisiana. Henry Adams, 
traveling throughout the State and taking note of crime com- 
mitted against negroes, said that 683 colored men were whipped, 
maimed or murdered within eleven years. ^ 

In the year 1879, therefore, thousands of negroes from Mis- 
sissippi, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama, Tennessee and North Caro- 
lina moved to Kansas. Henry Adams of Shreveport, Louisiana, 
an uneducated negro but a man of extraordinary talent, organ- 
ized that year a colonization council. He had been a soldier 
in the United States Army until 1869 when he returned to 
his home in Louisiana and found the condition of negroes in- 
tolerable. Together with a number of other negroes he first 
formed a committee which in his own words was intended to 
" look into affairs and see the true condition of our race, to see 
whether it was possible we could stay under a people who 
held us in bondage or not." This committee grew to the enor- 
mous size of five hundred members. One hundred and fifty of 
these members were scattered throughout the South to live and 
work among the negroes and report their observations. These 
agents quickly reached the conclusion that the treatment the 
negroes received was generally unbearable.^ Some of the con- 
ditions reported were that land rent was still high; that in the 
part of the country where the committee was organized the 
people were still being whipped, some of them by their former 
owners; that they were cheated out of their crops and that in 

^ Atlantic Monthly, LXIV, p. 222; Nation, XXVIII, pp. 242, 386. 
2 Williams, History of the Negro Race, II, p. 375. 
^Atlantic Monthly, LXIV, p. 222. 



INTRODUCTION 5 

some parts of the country where they voted they were being 
shot. 

It was decided about 1877 that all hope and confidence that 
conditions could be changed should be abandoned. Members 
of this committee felt that they could no longer remain in the 
South, and decided to leave even if they "had to run away 
and go into the woods." Membership in the council was solicited 
with the result that by 1878 there were ninety-eight thousand 
persons from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Texas be- 
longing to the colonization council and ready to move.^ 

About the same time there was another conspicuous figure 
working in Tennessee — Benjamin or " Pap " Singleton, who 
styled himself the father of the exodus. He began the work 
of inducing negroes to move to the State of Kansas about 1869, 
founded two colonies and carried a total of 7,432 blacks from 
Tennessee. During this time he paid from his own pocket over 
$600 for circulars which he distributed throughout the southern 
States. " The advantages of living in a free State " were the 
inducements offered." 

The movement spread as far east as North Carolina. There 
a similar movement was started in 1872 when there were dis- 
tributed a number of circulars from Nebraska telling of the 
United States government and railroad lands which could be 
cheaply obtained. This brief excitement subsided, but was re- 
vived again by reports of thousands of negroes leaving the other 
States of the South for Kansas. Several hundred of these 
migrants from North Carolina were persuaded en route to 
change their course and go to Indiana.^ 

Much excitement characterized the movement. One descrip- 
tion of this exodus says : 

Homeless, penniless and in rags, these poor people were thronging the 
wharves of St. Louis, crowding the steamers on the Mississippi River, hailing 
the passing steamers and imploring them for a passage to the land of 
freedom, where the rights of citizens are respected and honest toil rewarded 
by honest compensation. The newspapers were filled with accounts of their 

1 Williams, History of the Negro Race, Tl, p. 375. 

2W. L. Fleming, '" Pap Singleton, the Moses of the Colored Exodus," 
American Journal of Sociology, chapter XV, pp. 61-82. 

^Congressional Record, Senate Reports, 693, part II, 46th Cong., 2d sess. 



6 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

destitution, and the very air was burdened with the cry of distress from 
a class of American citizens flying from persecution which they could no 
longer endure. Their piteous tales of outrage, suffering and wrong touched 
the hearts of the more fortunate members of their race in the North and 
West, and aid societies, designed to afford temporary relief and composed 
almost wholly of colored people, were organized in Washington, St. Louis, 
Topeka and various other places.^ 

Men still living, who participated in this movement, tell of 
the long straggling procession of migrants, stretching to the 
length at times of from three to five miles, crossing States on 
foot. Churches were opened all along the route to receive 
them. Songs were composed, some of which still linger in the 
memory of survivors. The hardships under which they made 
this journey are pathetic. Yet it is estimated that nearly 25,000 
negroes left their homes for Kansas." 

The exodus during the World War, like both of these, was 
fundamentally economic, though its roots were entangled in the 
entire social system of the South. It was hailed as the " Exodus 
to the Promised Land " and characterized by the same frenzy 
and excitement. Unlike the Kansas movement, it had no con- 
spicuous leaders of the type of the renowned " Pap " Singleton 
and Henry Adams. Apparently they were not needed. The 
great horde of restless migrants swung loose from their acknowl- 
edged leaders. The very pervasiveness of the impulse to move 
at the first definite call of the North was sufficient to stir up 
and carry away thousands before the excitement subsided. 

Despite the apparent suddenness of this movement, all evi- 
dence indicates that it is but the accentuation of a process 
which has been going on for more than fifty years. So silently 
indeed has this shifting of the negro population taken place 
that it has quite escaped popular attention. (Following the 
decennial revelation of the census there is a momentary out- 
burst of dismay and apprehension at the manifest trend in the 
interstate migration of negroes. Inquiries into the living stand- 
ards of selected groups of negroes in large cities antedating the 
migration of 1916-1917 have revealed from year to year an in- 

1 American Journal of Social Science, XI, pp. 22-35. 

2 Ibid., p. 23. 



INTRODUCTION 7 

creasing number of persons of southern birth whose length of 
residence has been surprisingly short. The rapid increase in 
ihe negro population of the cities of the North bears eloquent 
testimony to this tendency. The total increase in the negro 
population between 1900 and 1910 was 11.2 per cent. In 
the past fifty years the northern movement has transferred about 
4 per cent of the entire negro population; and the movement 
has taken place in spite of the negro's economic handicap in 
the North. Within the same period Chicago increased her negro 
population 46.3 per cent and Columbus, Ohio, 55.3 per cent. 
This increase was wholly at the expense of the South, for the 
rural communities of the North are very sparsely populated 
with negroes and the increment accruing from surplus birth over 
deaths is almost negligible.^ 

When any attempt is made to estimate the volume of this 
most recent movement*, however, there is introduced a confusing 
element, for it can not definitely be separated from a process 
which has been in operation since emancipation. Another diffi- 
culty in obtaining reliable estimates is the distribution of the 
colored population over the rural districts. It is next to im- 
possible to estimate the numbers leaving the South even on the 
basis of the numbers leaving the cities. The cities are merely 
concentration points and they are continually recruiting from 
the surrounding rural districts. It might be stated that 2,000 
negroes left a certain city. As a matter of fact, scarcely half 
that number were residents of the city. The others had moved 
in because it was easier to leave for the North from a large 
city, and there was a greater likelihood of securing free trans- 
portation or traveling with a party of friends. It is conserva- 
tively stated, for example, that Birmingham, Alabama, lost 38,- 
000 negroes. Yet within a period of three months the negro 
population had assumed its usual proportions again.^ 

Prior to the present migration of negroes, there was some- 
what greater mobility on the part of the white than on the 
part of the negro population. As for example, according to 

^ The Censuses of the United States. 
2 Ibid. 



8 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

the census of 1910 of 68,070,294 native whites, 10,366,735 or 
15.2 per cent were living in some other division than that in 
which they were born. Of 9,746,043 native negroes reported 
by the census of 1910, 963,153 or 9.9 per cent were living 
outside the division of birth. ^ Previous to the present migra- 
tion, the south Atlantic and the east south central divisions were 
the only ones which had suffered a direct loss in population 
through the migration of negroes.^ 

The census of 1910 brought out the fact that there had been 
considerable migration from the North to the South, as well 
as from the South to the North, and from the East to the West. 
The number of persons born in the North and living in the 
South (1,449,229) was not very different from the number born 
in the South and living in the North (1,527,107). The North, 
however, has contributed more than five times as many to the 
population of the West as the South has. The number of 
negroes born in the South and living in the North in 1910 was 

415.533, or a little over two-thirds of the total number living 
in the North. Of the 9,109,153 negroes born in the South, 

440.534, or 4.8 per cent, were, in 1910, living outside the South.^ 
The migration southward it will be noted, has been in recent 
years largely into the west south central division, while the 
migration northward has been more evenly distributed by divi- 
sions, except that a comparatively small number from the South 
have gone into the New England States.* 

The greater mobility of whites than of negroes is shown by 
the fact that in 1910, 15 per cent of the whites and 10 per cent 
of the negroes lived outside of the States in which they were 
born. This greater mobility of the whites as compared with 
the negroes was due in a large measure to the lack of oppor- 
tunities for large numbers of negroes to find employment in 
the sections outside the South. The World War changed these 
conditions and gave to the negroes of the United States the 
same opportunities for occupations in practically every section 

^ Vol. I, census of 1910, Population, General Report and Analysis, p. 693. 

2 Ihid., p. 694. 

3 Ibid., p. 698. 

* Vol. I, 1910 census, Population, General Report and Analysis, p. 699. 



INTRODUCTION 



of the country, which had heretofore been enjoyed only by the 
whites. In 1900, 27,000 negroes born in the North lived in the 
South. In 1910, 41,000 negroes born in the North lived in 
the South. This indicated that there was beginning to be a 
considerable movement of negroes from the North to the South 
because of the greater opportunities in the South to find em- 
ployment in teaching, medicine and business. The migration 
conditions brought about by the war have probably changed this 
to some extent. Previous to the World War, the States having 
the greatest gain from negro migration were Arkansas, 105,500, 
Pennsylvania, 85,000, Oklahoma, 85,000, Florida, 84,000, New 
York, 58,450 and Illinois, 57,500. 

The point brought out here indicates that because of economic 
opportunities, Arkansas and Oklahoma, being contiguously situ- 
ated in one section of the South and Florida in another section 
of the South, had received a greater migration of negroes than 
any State in the North. 

Dr. William Oscar Scroggs of Louisiana calls attention to 
the tendency of negroes to move within the South, although, 
as he points out, this tendency is not as great as it is for the 
whites. On this he says : 

The negro shows a tendency, not only to move northward, but also to 
move about very freely within the South. In fact, the region registering 
the largest net gain of negroes in 1910 from this interstate movement was 
the west south central division (Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas) 
which showed a gain from this source of 194,658. The middle Atlantic 
division came second with a gain of 186,384, and the east north central third 
with a gain of 119,649. On the other hand, the south Atlantic States showed 
a loss of 392,827, and the east south central States a loss of 200,876 from 
interstate migration. While the negroes have shown this marked inclination 
toward interstate movement, they nevertheless exhibit this tendency in less 
degree than do the whites.^ 

The subjoined tables show the intersectional migration of 
the negro population : 

1 Scroggs, " Interstate Migration of Negro Population," Journal of Po- 
litical Economy, December, 1917, p. 1040. 



10 



NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 



INTERSECTIONAL MIGRATION OF NEGROES 

(As Reported by Census of 1910) 

Number Born in Specified Divisions and Living In or Out of 

These Divisions 





Total Born in 
the Division 


Number Living: 


Per Cent Liv- 


Division 


Within 
Division 


Without 
Division 


ing Without 

the Division 

in Which 

Born 


United States 

New England 

Middle Atlantic . . . 
East North Central 
West North Central 
South Atlantic .... 
East South Central 
West South Central 
Mountain 


9,746.043 

37,799 

212,145 

173,226 

198,116 

4,487,313 

2,844,598 

1,777,242 

7,342 

8,262 


8,782.890 

30,815 

189,962 

145,187 

162,054 

4,039,173 

2,491.607 

1,713.888 

4,122 

6,082 


963.153 

6.984 

22.183 

28,039 

36.062 

448.140 

352.991 

63.354 

3,220 

2,180 


9.9 
18.5 
10.5 
16.2 
18.2 
10.0 
12.4 

2.6 
4^0 


Pacific 


26 4 







Number Living in Specified Divisions 



Division 


Total Living 

in the 

Division 


Number 
Born in and 

Living in 
the Division 


Number 

Living in 

the Division 

Born in Other 

Divisions 


Per Cent 

Living in 

Division 

Born in Other 

Divisions 


United States 

New England 

Middle Atlantic . . . 
East North Central 
West North Central 

South Atlantic 

East South Central 
West South Central 
Mountain 


9,746,043 

58,109 

398,529 

292,875 

238,613 

4.094,486 

2.643.722 

1,971,900 

20,571 

27,238 


8,782,890 

30,815 

189,962 

145,187 

162.054 

4,039,173 

2,491,607 

1,713,888 

4,122 

6,082 


963,153 

27,294 

208,567 

147,688 

76,559 

55,313 

152,115 

258,012 

16,449 

21,156 


9.9 
47.0 
52.3 
50.4 
32.1 
1.4 
5.8 
13.1 
800 


Pacific 


77 7 







INTRODUCTION 



11 



Migration North to South, South to North and East to West 





Total 

Native 

Population 


Born in : 


State of 
Birth not 


Race and Section 
of Residence 


The North 


The South 


The West 


Reported 

or Born in 

Outlying 

Posses- 












sions, etc. 


All Races 












United States 

The North 

The South 

The West 


78,456,380 

44,390,371 

28,649,319 

5,416,690 


46,179,002 

42,526,162 

1,449,229 

2,203,611 


29,010,255 

1,527,107 

27,079,282 

403,866 


2,906,162 

124,001 

38,230 

2,743,931 


360,961 

213,101 

82,578 

65,282 


White 












United States 

The North 

The South 

The West 


68,386,412 

43,319,193 

19,821,249 

5,245,970 


45,488,942 

41,891,353 

1,407,262 

2,190,327 


19,814,860 

1,110,245 

18,326,236 

378,379 


2,766,492 

116,939 

34,523 

2,615,030 


316,118 

200.656 

53.228 

62,234 


Negro 

United States 

The North 

The South 

The West 


9,787,424 

999.451 

8,738.858 

49,115 


621,286 

570.298 

39.077 

11,911 


9,109.153 

415,533 

8,668,619 

25,001 


15.604 
2,295 
2,412 

10,897 


41,381 

11,325 

28,750 

1,306 



12 



NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 



Net Migration Eastward and Westward and 
Northward and Southward 





Population, 1910 




Total 


White 


Negro 




Section 


Total 


Of Na- 
tive Par- 
entage 


Of For- 
eign or 
Mixed 
Parent- 
age 


All 
Other 


Born east and living 
west of the Mis- 
sissippi River . . . 

Born west and living 
east of the Mis- 
sissippi River . . . 


5,276,879 
684,773 


4,941,529 
616,939 

4,324,590 
1,407,262 
1,110.245 

297,017 


3,846,940 
417,541 


1,094,589 
199,398 

895,191 
251,140 
165.673 

85,467 


331,031 
63.671 


4,319 
4,163 


Net migration west- 
ward across the 
Mississippi River 

Born North and liv- 
ing South 

Born South and liv- 
ing North 


4,592,106 
1,449,229 
1,527,107 


3,429,399 

1,156,122 

944,572 

211.550 


267,360 

39.077 

415.533 

376,456 


156 
2.890 
1,329 


Net migration south- 
ward 


1,561 


Net migration north- 
ward . . 


77,878 















CHAPTER II 

Causes of the Migration 

It seems particularly desirable in any study of the causes of 
the movement to get beneath the usual phraseology on the sub- 
ject and find, if possible, the basis of the dissatisfaction, and 
the social, political and economic forces supporting it. It seems 
that most of the causes alleged were present in every section 
of the South, but frequently in a different order of importance. 
The testimony of the migrants themselves or of the leading white 
and colored men of the South was in general agreement. The 
chief points of disagreement were as to which causes were 
fundamental. The frequency with which the same causes were 
given by different groups is an evidence of their reality. 

A most striking feature of the northern migration was its 
individualism. This factor after all, however, was economic. 
The motives prompting the thousands of negroes were not 
always the same, not even in the case of close neighbors. As 
a means of making intelligible these complicating factors it is 
necessary to watch the process as it affected the several migrants. 
The economic motive stands among the foremost reasons for 
the decision of the group to leave the South. There are several 
ways of arriving at a conclusion regarding the economic forces. 
These factors might, for example, be determined by the amount 
of unemployment or the extent of poverty in a community 
as registered by the prosperity. These facts are important, but 
may or may not account wholly for individual action. Except 
in a few localities of the South there was no actual misery 
and starvation. Nor is it evident that those who left would 
have perished from want had they remained. Discontent be- 
came more manifest as comparisons were made between the 
existing state of things at home and a much better state of 
things elsewhere. It is possible to note in the appeals of the 

13 



14 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

letters a suggestion of a desire simply to improve their living 
standards so long as there was an opportunity. In the case 
of some there is expressed a praiseworthy providence for 
their families; and in others may be found an index to the pov- 
erty and hopelessness of their home communities. In this type 
of migration the old order is strangely reversed. Large num- 
bers of negroes have frequently moved around from State to 
State and even within the States of the South in search of more 
remunerative employment. A movement to the West or even 
about in the South could have proceeded from the same cause, 
as in the case of the migration to Arkansas and Oklahoma. 

Among the immediate economic causes of the migration were 
the labor depression in the South in 1914 and 1915 and the 
large decrease in foreign immigration resulting from the World 
War. Then came the cotton boll weevil in the summers of 
1915 and 1916, greatly damaging the cotton crop over consid- 
erable area, largely in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia 
and Florida, and threatening greatly to unsettle farming con- 
ditions in the year 1917.^ There followed then the cotton price 
demoralization and the low price of this product during subse- 
quent years. The unusual floods during the summer of 1915 
over large sections in practically the same States further aggra- 
vated the situation. The negroes, moreover, were generally dis- 
satisfied because of the continued low wages which obtained 
in the South in spite of the increasing cost of living. Finally, 
there was a decided decrease in foreign immigration. The re- 
sult was a great demand in the North for the labor of the negro 
at wages such as he had never received." 

To understand further the situation in the South at the be- 
ginning of the migration and just prior to it, attention should 
be directed to the fact that the practice of mortgaging the 
cotton crop before it is produced made sudden reversals — an 
inevitable result of such misfortune as followed the boll weevil 
and the floods. Thousands of landlords were forced to dismiss 
their tenants and close the commissaries from which came the 

1 New York Times, September 5, 9. 28, 1916. 

2 Ibid., October 18. 28 ; November 5, 7, 12. 15 ; December 4, 9, 1916. 



CAUSES OF THE MIGRATION 15 

daily rations. Some planters in Alabama and Mississippi ad- 
vised their tenants to leave and even assisted them. The banks 
and merchants refused to extend credit when cotton was no 
longer to be had as a security. As a consequence, a great num- 
ber of tenants were left without productive work, money or 
credit. A host of idle persons thrown suddenly on the labor 
market could have no other effect than to create an excess in 
the cities to which they flocked, make laborers easily replaceable, 
and consequently reduce wages. A southern paper in comment- 
ing on this situation declared " there is nothing for this excess 
population to do. These people must live on the workers, 
making the workers poorer ... if there is a tap that will 
draw off the idle population, that will be a good thing for the 
cities at least." ^ 

The circumstances of unemployment which contributed so 
largely to the restless mood in some sections of the South was 
due primarily to a lack of sufficient capital to support labor 
during the lean seasons. This meant, of course, that the cotton 
pests and storms that played havoc with whole sections rendered 
helpless all classes of the population. The usual method of han- 
dling labor, especially on the cotton plantations, was for the 
planter to maintain his hands from the commissary during the 
fall and early winter in order that they might be convenient 
for the starting and cultivation of a new crop. But with their 
last year's crop lost, their credit gone and the prospects of a 
new crop very shadowy, there was left no other course but to 
dismiss the people whom they could not support. 

For a long time southern farmers had been importuned to 
adopt a more diversified method of farming to offset the effects 
of unexpected misfortune in the cotton industry and to preserve 
the value of the soil. Following the ravages of the boll weevil, 
the idea gained wide application. The cotton acreage was cut 
down and other crops substituted. The cultivation of cotton 
requires about five times as many laborers as the cultivation 
of corn and the work is fairly continuous for a few employes 
throughout the year. Additional unemployment for negro ten- 

iWork, Report on Negro Migration from Alabama. 



16 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

ant farmers was an expected result of this diversification. The 
greatest immediate disadvantage to negro planters and small 
farmers resulting from the failure of the cotton crops was 
the lack of money and credit to sustain them while the corn 
and velvet beans were being grown. It was for like reasons 
impracticable to attempt to raise stock, for there was no means 
of making a beginning, as a certain amount of capital was 
prerequisite. 

Despite the fact that food prices began to rise with the war, 
wages advanced very slowly. In 1915, wages of farm laborers 
in the South averaged around 75 cents a day. In the towns 
the principal opportunities for employment were in the oil mills, 
lumber mills, cotton compresses, railroad shops and domestic 
service. In the mills and shops the average of wages ranged 
from $1 to $1.50 a day. The wages of such skilled laborers 
as carpenters and bricklayers ranged from $2 to $3.50 a day. 
In domestic service women received from $1.50 to $3 per week 
and board. Men in domestic service received on an average of 
$5 a week.^ 

In spite of these conditions in the South it might appear 
strange that not until fifty years after the privilege was granted 
negroes to go where they pleased did they begin to make a 
sudden rush for the northern States. Stranger still does it seem 
that, despite the fairly general agreement among southern negroes 
that the North affords greater personal liberty, is less prejudiced 
to individuals because of the color of their skins, grants to 
negroes something nearer to open handed justice, participation 
in the government, wider privileges and freer associations, there 
should be in 1910 scarcely more than one-tenth of the negro 
population where these reputed advantages are. The North 
has been looked upon as the " Promised Land," the " Ark of 
Safety," the " House of Refuge " for all these years. A com- 
mon reason recently advanced by the majority of southern 
negroes for the abandonment of their homes was the desire to 
escape from the oppressive social system of their section. Why 
have they not escaped before ? The answer lies in the very hard 

1 Work and Johnson, Report on the Migration during the World War. 



CAUSES OF THE MIGRATION 17 

fact that, though the North afforded larger privileges, it would 
not support negroes. It was the operation of an inexorable 
economic law, confused with a multitude of social factors, that 
pushed them back to the soil of the South despite their manifest 
desire to leave it. 

None of the causes was more effective than that of the 
opportunity to earn a better living. Wages offered in the North 
were double and treble those received in the South. Women 
who received $2.50 a week in domestic service could earn from 
$2.10 to $2.50 a day and men receiving $1.10 and $1.25 a day 
could earn from $2.50 to $3.75 a day in the various industries 
in the North.' An intensive study of the migration to Pitts- 

1 Attractive advertisements appeared in negro newspapers with wide cir- 
culation in the South. These are from the Chicago Defender. 

" Wanted— 10 molders. Must be experienced. $4.50 to $5.50 per day. 
Write B. F. R. Defender Office." 

" Wanted— 25 girls for dishwashing. Salary $7 a week and board. John 
R. Thompson, Restaurant, 314 South State Street. Call between 7 and 8 a.m. 
Ask for Mr. Brown." 

" Wanted— 25 young men as bus boys and porters. Salary $8 per week 
and board. John R. Thompson, Restaurant, 314 South State Street. Call 
between 7 and 8 a.m. Ask for Mr. Brown." 

" Molders wanted. Good pay, good working conditions. Firms supply 
cottages for married men. Apply T. L. Jefferson, 3439 State Street. 

"Ten families and SO men wanted at once for permanent work in the 
Connecticut tobacco fields. Good wages. Inquire National League on Urban 
Conditions among Negroes, 2303 Seventh Avenue, New York City, New 
York." 

" Molders wanted. A large manufacturing concern, ninety miles from 
Chicago, is in need of experienced molders. Wages from $3 to $5.50. Extra 
for overtime. Transportation from Chicago only. Apply Chicago League 
on Urban Conditions among Negroes. T. Arnold Hill, Executive Secretary, 
3719 State Street, Chicago." 

" Laborers wanted for foundry, warehouse and yard work. Excellent 
opportunity to learn trades, paying good money. Start $2.50 — $2.75 per day. 
Extra for overtime. Transportation advanced from Chicago only. Apply 
Chicago League on Urban Conditions among Negroes, 3719 South State 
Street. Chicago." 

" Experienced machinists, foundrymen, pattern makers wanted, for perma- 
nent work in Massachusetts. Apply National League on Urban Conditions 
among Negroes, 2303 7th Ave., New York City." 

" 3,000 laborers to work on railroad. Factory hires all race help. More 
positions open than men for them." 

" Men wanted at once. Good steady employment for colored. Thirty 
and 393^ cents per hour.. Weekly payments. Good warm sanitary quarters 
free. Best commissary privileges. Towns of Newark and Jersey City. 
Fifteen minutes by car line offer cheap and suitable homes for men with 
families. For out of lown parties of ten or more cheap transportation will 
be arranged. Only reliable men who stay on their job are wanted. Apply 



18 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

burgh, made by Mr. Abraham Epstein, gives an idea of the 
difference in wages paid in the North and the South. His 
findings may be quoted : " The great mass of workers get higher 
wages here than in the places from which they come. Fifty-six 
per cent received less than two dollars a day in the South, while 
only five per cent received such wages in Pittsburgh." Sixty- 
two per cent received between $2 and $3 per day in Pittsburgh 
as compared with 25 per cent in the South, and 28 per cent 
received between $3 and $3.60 in this city as compared with 
four per cent in the South. 

The inability to educate their children properly because of 
the inadequacy of school facilities was another cause which has 
been universally given for leaving the South. ^ The basis for 
this frequently voiced complaint is well set forth in the study 
of Negro Education by Dr. Thomas Jesse Jones.^ 

or write Butterworth Judson Corporation, Box 273, Newark. New Jersey, or 
Daniel T. Brantley, 315 West 119th Street. New York City." 

" $3.60 per day can be made in a steel foundry in Minnesota, by strong, 
healthy, steady men. Open only to men living in Chicago. Apply in person. 
Chicago League on Urban Conditions among Negroes, 3719 South State 
Street, Chicago, Illinois." 
1 An investigator in Mississippi reports the following: 

The school population is 60 per cent colored. There are seven white and 
two colored schools. The average salaries paid to white assistant teachers 
is $75 per month. The average salaries paid to colored assistant teachers is 
$32.50 per month. The average number of pupils taught by white is 30 and 
the average number taught by colored is 100. 

In the county there are no agricultural high schools or in fact high schools 
of any kind. The whites in the same county have an agricultural high 
school of "magnificent proportions" and "excellent facilities," a literary 
high school and about ten consolidated schools. 

Negroes complain that the authorities are building white schools in com- 
munities where the negro population is five times as great. When they first 
sought to establish these consolidated schools, there was a provision that 
every one must pay taxes to support them. Negroes who were required to 
pay large taxes refused because they were denied the benefits of the schools. 
.A law was passed with the provision that the majority of qualified electors 
in a county supervisor's district might secure one of these schools on peti- 
tion to the Board of Supervisors and with the understanding that they 
would pay taxes. But negroes are not qualified electors and consequently 
have no schools. 

In Liberty Grove the white school goes to the twelfth grade, with courses 
also in music. Automobiles bring the children to school and carry them 
back. The negro school in the same community has only one teacher getting 
$25 per month and teaching over 200 children. There are two large negro 
denominational schools, Jackson College and Campbell College which serve 
to supplement the public schools provided by the city. 

-Jones, Negro Education, vol. II, pp. 14, 15, Bulletin. 1916, No. 30 of the 
United States Bureau of Education. 



CAUSES OF THE MIGRATION 19 

The inadequacy of the elementary school system for colored children is 
indicated both by the comparisons of public appropriations already given 
and by the fact that the attendance in both public and private schools is 
only 58.1 per cent of the children six to fourteen years of age. The average 
length of the public school term is less than five months in practically all 
of the southern States. i\Iost of the school buildings, especially those in 
the rural districts, are in wretched condition. There is little supervision and 
little effort to improve the schools or adapt their efforts to the needs of 
the community. The reports of the State Departments of Georgia and 
Alabama indicate that 70 per cent of the colored teachers have third grade 
or temporary certificates, representing a preparation less than that usually 
given in the first eight elementary grades. Investigations made by super- 
visors of colored schools in other States indicate that the percentage of 
poorly prepared colored teachers is almost as high in the other southern 
States. 

The supervisor of white elementary rural schools in one of the States 
recently wrote concerning negro schools : " I never visit one of these 
(negro) schools without feeling that we are wasting a large part of this 
money and are neglecting a great opportunity. The negro schoolhouses are 
miserable beyond all description. They are usually without comfort, equip- 
menti proper lighting or sanitation. Nearly all of the negroes of school age 
in the district are crowded into these miserable structures during the short 
term which the school runs. Most of the teachers are absolutely untrained 
and have been given certificates by the county board, not because they have 
passed the examination, but because it is necessary to have some kind of 
negro teacher. Among the negro rural schools which I have visited, I have 
found only one in which the highest class knew the multiplication table." 



The treatment which the negroes received at the hands of 
the courts and the guardians of the peace constituted another 
cause of the migration. Negroes largely distrust the courts 
and have to depend on the influence of their aristocratic white 
friends. When a white man assaults a negro he is not pun- 
ished. When a white man kills a negro he is usually freed 
without extended legal proceedings, but the rule as laid down 
by the southern judge is usually that when a negro kills a white 
man, whether or not in self-defense, the negro must die. Negro 
witnesses count for nothing except when testifying against 
members of their own race. The testimony of a white man 
is conclusive in every instance. In no State of the South can 
a negro woman get a verdict for seduction, nor in most cases 
enter a suit against a white man; nor, where a white man is 
concerned, is the law of consent made to apply to a negro girl. 



20 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

It will be said, however, that such drastic action is not gen- 
eral in the South; but throughout the Black Belt the negroes 
suffer from arrests and impositions for petty offenses which make 
their lives sometimes miserable. The large number of negroes 
owning automobiles is a source of many conflicts. Many col- 
lisions, possibly avoidable, have resulted in wresting from the 
negroes concerned excessive damages which go to increase the 
returns of the courts. For example, the chauffeur of one of 
the most influential negroes in Mississippi collided with a white 
man's car. Although there was sufficient evidence to exonerate 
the chauffeur concerned, the owner of the vehicle was forced 
to pay damages and sell his car.^ 

In the Birmingham district of Alabama a striking discrimi- 
nation is made in the arrests for failure to pay the street tax. 
Mr. Henry L. Badham, President of the Bessemer Coal, Iron 
and Land Company, said in commenting on the causes of the 
migration : 

I do not blame the negroes for going away from Birmingham. The 
treatment that these unfortunate negroes are receiving from the police is 
enough to make them desire to depart. The newspapers have printed articles 
about the departure of the laborers from Birmingham. On one page there 
is a story to the effect that something should be done to prevent the exodus 
of the negroes to other cities. And then on the same page there appears 
a little paragraph stating that negroes were arrested for failure to pay $2.50 
street tax. The injustice of arresting these negroes for the inability to 
have $2.50 ready to turn over into the coffers of the city is obvious. While 
they have been taken into custody, despite their protests that they merely 
have not a sufficient amount of money with which to meet the demand, you 
do not see that white men are arrested for the failure to pay the tax. 
There is no gainsaying the fact that there are thousands of men walking the 
streets who have not paid a similar sum into the treasury of the city. The 
negroes ought to get a square deal. When he is without funds, you can not 
blame him for that. The city police ought to be more reliable, or at least 
show no favoritism.2 

The fee system in the courts of the South is one of the 
most effective causes of the migration. The employers of labor 
fought this system for eight years and finally got it abolished 
in Jefferson county, Alabama. Under this system the sheriff 

1 Work and Johnson, Report on the Migration during the World War. 
- Montgom-ery Advertiser. 



CAUSES OF THE MIGRATION ' 21 

received a fee for feeding all prisoners. The greater the num- 
ber of prisoners, the greater would be the income for the sheriff's 
office. As a result, it became customary in Jefferson county, 
Alabama, to arrest negroes in large numbers. Deputy sheriffs 
would go out to mining camps where there were large numbers 
of laborers and bring back fifty or more negroes at a time. 
This condition became unbearable both to the employer and 
to the employe. Calling attention to the evil of this fee system, 
Dr. W. H. Gates, State Prison Inspector, said in his annual 
report for lOl-t : ^ 

The vile, pernicious, pervading fee system beggars description and my 
vocabulary is inadequate to describe its deleterious and baneful effects. It 
increases in the management of our jails greed for the almighty dollar. 
Prisoners are arrested because of the dollar and, shame to say, are fre- 
quently kept in captivity for months in steel cages for no other reason than 
the almighty dollar. 

During the fiscal year ending September 30, 1917, Jefferson 
county had 6,000 prisoners as follows: 

In jail at the beginning of the year 328 

Incarcerated during the year : 

White men 1,289 

Negro men 3,636 

White women 118 

Negro vk^omen 969 

Total 6,340 

The fee bill, according to the sheriff's annual report of this 
department was $37,688.90. As the law provided that for 
each prisoner the sheriff shall receive 30 cents a day for feed- 
ing-, and as a matter of fact the sheriff fed them for 10 cents 
a day, it is clear that he made a net profit of $25,125.94 during 
one fiscal year or at the same rate for his term of four years, 
$100,503.76.= 

Another frequent complaint was directed against the accom- 
modations for travel. It generally happens that the cars are 
crowded because the amount of space allotted is insufficient, and 

1 Annual Report of the Prison Inspector of Alabama, 1914. 

2 Report of the Sheriff of Jefferson County, Alabama, 1917. 



22 ' NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

negroes as a class are denied accommodation in sleeping and 
dining cars. Usually there is but one toilet for both sexes and 
the waiting rooms at stations are cut ofif, unclean and insani- 
tary. Then there are numerous petty offenses, which in them- 
selves appear trifling, but which are spoken of as being on the 
whole considerably annoying. White men are permitted to come 
into the negroes' part of the coach and entertain the conductor, 
newsboy and flagman, all of whom usually make their headquar- 
ters there. The drunkards, the insane and other undesirables 
are forced into this comparment among negro women who have 
to listen to oaths and vulgar utterances. In stopping at some 
points, the trains halt the negro car in muddy and abominably 
disagreeable places; the rudeness and incivility of the public 
servants are ever apparent, and at the stations the negroes must 
wait at a separate window until every white passenger has pur- 
chased a ticket before he is waited on, although he may be de- 
layed long enough to miss the train. 

Both whites and negroes in mentioning the reasons for the 
movement generally give lynching as one of the most important 
causes and state that the fear of the mob has greatly accelerated 
the exodus. Negroes in Florida gave as their reason for going 
north the horrible lynchings in Tennessee. The white press 
in Georgia maintained that lynchings were driving the negroes 
in large numbers from that State. A careful study of the 
movement, however, shows that bad treatment by representa- 
tives of the law caused almost as many negroes to leave the 
South as lynchings, for, whereas lynchings were more or less 
sporadic, persecutions and mistreatment by representatives of 
the law were trials which all negroes had continually to bear 
and from which they were anxious to escape.^ 

Many of these causes then have their origin on the one hand 
in the attitude which the South assumes toward the negro as 
expressed in law and public opinion, and on the other hand 
in the feeling of the negro toward the South because of the 
treatment given him. A' negro educator of Mississippi sought 
to explain the situation, saying: 

1 Work and Johnson, Report on the Migration during the World War. 



CAUSES OF THE MIGRATION 23 

Many white men of high intellectual ability and keen discernment have 
mistaken the negroes' silence for contentment, his facial expression for 
satisfaction at prevailing conditions, and his songs and jovial air for happi- 
ness. ^ But this is not always so. These are his methods of bearing trouble 
and keeping his soul sweet under seeming wrongs. In the absence of a 
spokesman or means of communication with the whites over imagined 
grievances, he has brightened his countenance, smiled and sung to ease his 
mind. In the midst of it all he is unable to harmonize with the practices of 
daily life the teachings of the Bible which the white Christian placed in 
his hands. He finds it difficult to harmonize the fatherhood of God and 
the brotherhood of man, and his faith is put to the test in the Providence 
which enslaved his ancestors, corrupted his blood and placed upon him 
stigmas more damaging than to be a leper or convict by making his color 
a badge of infamy and his preordained social position at the bottom of 
human society. So firmly has his status been fixed by this Providence that 
neither moral worth, fidelity to trust, love of home, loyalty to country, or 
faith in God can raise him to human recognition. 

When he remembers that he has beeit the beast of burden of southern 
civilization and the foundation of its luxuriant ease, when he rehearses to 
his children that he was the South's sole dependence when his master was 
away repelling hostile armies, and how he worked by day and guarded his 
unprotected mistress and her children at night, or accompanied his master 
to the swamps of Virginia and the Carolinas and bound up his wounds or 
brought his maimed or dead body home on his shoulders, these children 
can not understand the attitude of the South toward them. They do not 
understand why they have not been educated to efficiency and employed to 
the best interest of the South. They do not understand why they have not 
been given better living conditions, a more equitable division of funds appro- 
priated for the education of the youth, nor provisions made for their higher 
or professional training, or why so much prejudice is engendered in the 
practice of these professions among their own people. They do not under- 
stand why they have been made to toil at starvation wages and to pay 
hea\'y fines and suffer long prison sentences for stealing food and clothing. 
They do not understand why no estimate is placed upon negro virtue and 
the full rights of citizenship are denied to negroes of education, character 
and worth. If some mysterious Providence has ordained that they support 
themselves and employers by farming, they do not understand why they are 
deprived of agricultural schools. They do not see why mere prejudice 
would prevent them from obtaining a square deal when contending for the 

1 Mr. Charles S. Johnson reports the following from Mississippi : 
" The police of most of the cities are rough and indiscriminate in their 
treatment of negroes. At the depot during the summer, on several occa- 
sions, negro porters were severely beaten by policemen for trivial reasons. 
This, it was said, started a stream of young men that cleaned the town of 
porters. 

" Fee constables made their living from arresting negroes, indiscriminately, 
on trivial charges. A white man, to whom a prominent negro physician had 
gone for advice on a case concerning his arrest on a charge of having no 
lights on his automobile, said, 'If I were a negro, I would rather appear 
before a Russian court than come before a court here for trial.' " 



24 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

possessions of life, liberty and property. They do not understand why 
they are not protected from petty peace officers in search of fees and from 
mobs while in the hands of officers of the law. Finally, they do not under- 
stand why there is so little genuine sympathy and brotherhood between 
them and the only people they know — the people whose language and cus- 
toms they use, under whose laws they live, whose Bible they read, whose 
God they serve. These thoughts possessed the negroes' mind when, twelve 
months ago, the boll weevil and rains destroyed the crops in the South 
and the European war was calling foreigners from field and factory in the 
North.i 

One should bear in mind that the two generations of negroes 
living in the South are affected differently by the measures of 
control of the whites, and in many cases respond dift'erently to 
treatment received. The older generation of whites and blacks 
avoided much friction by a sort of mutual understanding. The 
children of colored and white parents come less frequently into 
friendly contact and find it difficult to live together on the 
terms accepted by their fathers. Negro parents appreciate this 
situation but, although admitting that they can tolerate the 
position to which they are assigned, they do not welcome such 
an arrangement for their children. For this reason they are 
not reluctant to send their sons away from home. Should the 
children remain there, they live in a state of anxiety for their 
safety. They would not have them grow up as they, en- 
compassed by restraints, and the young men themselves appear 
to entertain toward the prevailing system a more aggressive 
hostility. 

A woman of color in Greenville, Mississippi, for example, 
had a son in a northern State and was afraid to invite him 
home to pay a visit because, as she stated, " for him to accept 
the same abuses to which we, his parents, are accustomed, would 
make him much less than the man we would have him be." 
Another negro, a physician, the " Nestor " of his profession, 
having practiced in his State over thirty-five years, said : 

Sir, I can't expect my son to accept the treatment under which I have 
been brought up. My length of residence here and the number of friends 
whom I know of the older and more aristocratic type of whites will protect 

1 Work and Johnson, Report on the Migration during the World War. 



CAUSES OF THE MIGRATION 25 

me, but as for him, there is no friendship. Now, as for me, there is no 
reason why I should leave. I am making as much money as I could 
anywhere else and all of the white people respect me. But I am just one 
out of a thousand. The younger men have neither my contact nor influence. 

A lawyer of remarkable talent formerly of Mississippi, now 
living with his children in Chicago, who had felt keenly this 
humiliation and recognized it as one of the motives behind his 
change of residence, thus stated the situation: 

One peculiar phase of the white southern prejudice is that no matter 
how well liked or popular a colored man be in any community, his son 
does not share that popularity unless he enters a field of endeavor dis- 
tinctly lower in the scale than that occupied by his parent. My experience 
goes both ways on this subject. My stepfather was a dearly beloved colored 
man of the old school, but when he sent me off to Oberlin College I 
returned to find that the community in which I had been beloved as a boy 
in attendance at the rude country school looked at me askance. It took 
twenty years to overcome the handicap of attempting to occupy a higher 
sphere than that to which the community thought it right to assign me. 
My experiences were repeated by my son. He was a well liked boy by 
the best people in a city of about twenty-five thousand, because he was my 
son and was polite and agreeable. When he went to a nearby Mississippi 
college and worked in his summer vacations in a local industrial plant, they 
still thought well of him, but when it was learned that he was being gradu- 
ated at Oberlin College, and his picture appeared in a college year book, 
among others, my intimate white friends wanted to know the necessity for 
so much education and, with a shrug of the shoulder, they let all mention 
of him drop, as if he had offended the most sacred laws of the community. 
This spirit appeared so marked that I did not have him come back to visit 
his mother and me during the summer vacation. I have seen the same spirit 
in many instances. No man can explain why it is, but it is so.^ 

1 Work and Johnson, Report on the Migration during the World War. 



CHAPTER III 

Stimulation of the Movement 

It is not surprising that the exodus grew so contagious when 
viewed in the light of the numerous factors which played a part 
in influencing its extension. Considering the temper of the 
South and its attitude toward any attempt to reduce its lahor 
supply, it is readily apparent that leaders who openly encour- 
aged the exodus would be in personal danger. There were, of 
course, some few who did venture to voice their belief in it, 
but they were in most cases speedily silenced. A Methodist 
minister was sent to jail because he was said to have been en- 
ticing laborers to go north and work for a New York firm, 
which would give employment to fifty of his people. The tactics 
adopted by influential persons who favored the movement, there- 
fore, were of necessity covert and very much guarded. 

One of the chief stimuli was discussion. The very fact that 
negroes were leaving in large numbers was a disturbing factor. 
The talk in the barber shops and grocery stores where men 
were wont to assemble soon began to take the form of reasons 
for leaving. There it was the custom to review all the instances 
of mistreatment and injustice which fell to the lot of the negro 
in the South. It was here also that letters from the North were 
read and fresh news on the exodus was first given out. In 
Hattiesburg, Mississippi, it was stated that for a while there 
was no subject of discussion but the migration. " The packing 
houses in Chicago for a while seemed to be everything," said 
one negro. " You could not rest in your bed at night for 
Chicago." Chicago came to be so common a word that they 
began to call it " Chi." Men went down to talk with the 
Chicago porters on the Gulf and Ship Island Railroad which ran 

26 



STIMULATION OF THE MOVEMENT 27 

through the town. They asked questions about the weather in 
Chicago. The report was that it was the same as in Hattiesburg.^ 

In every circle the advisabihty of leaving was debated. In 
the churches the pastors, seeing their flocks leaving, at first 
attempted to dissuade them. The people refused to come to 
church. In the church meetings there were verbal clashes on 
the matter of the attitude toward the migration. Some few had 
been careful enough to go north and investigate for themselves 
and friends. A man learned of the North through a friend 
whose relatives wrote him from that section. He, thereupon, 
decided to pay a visit cf two weeks, going in August. The 
attitude of the North overwhelmed him. At Fulton, Kentucky, 
while he was on the train a white man was sitting in front of 
him. He wanted to ask him a question but hesitated fearing 
that he would be rebuffed. He finally addressed the stranger, 
who answered him courteously and kindly, calling his attention 
to other points of interest in the North. At Gary, Indiana, he 
met a gentleman who said he had been mayor of Gary for 
seven years. He described the Gary school system and prom- 
ised him an education for his children. He was assured em- 
ployment at $4 a day for eight hours' work." 

A still more powerful, though insidious factor, was the work 
of public speakers who hid their intentions behind their unique 
method of presentation. In a lecture on the question of migra- 
tion a speaker, who is a widely known character, made these 
remarks : 

So many of my folks are leaving that I thought I'd go up and see 
whether or not they had made a mistake. I found thousands of old friends 
up there making more money than they'd ever made in their lives. I said 
to one woman in Chicago, " Well, Sister — — , I see you're here." " Yes, 

Brother , I'm here, thank the Lord." " Do you find it any colder up 

here than it was in Mississippi"" "Did I understand you correctly to say 
cold? Honey, I mean it's cold. It is some cold." "But you expect to 
return, don't you?" "Don't play with me, chile. What am I going to 
return for? I should say not. Up here you see when I come out on the 
street I walk on nice smooth pavements. Down home I got to walk home 
through the mud. Up here at nights it don't matter much about coming 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration from Mississippi. 

2 Ibid. 



28 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

home from church. Down home on my street there ain't a single lamp 
post. And say, honey, I got a bath tub ! " ^ 

He related the instance of his visit to an automobile plant 
where he was met at the door by a " stalwart, handsome, six- 
footer as black as midnight." He asked his companion the 
name of this " potentate." He was told that this man was 
an experienced machinist. Every car that passed out of that 
plant must have his O. K. He added further that his salary 
was something like $100 a week and that the incident showed 
the unlimited chance for expansion in the North. When he 
began to enumerate some of the positions which " men of the 
race " were holding, the audience became enthusiastic beyond 
control. One man in the audience, who had been to Detroit, 
could restrain himself no longer and stood up to inform the 
audience that there were also colored street car conductors and 
motormen and that he had seen them with his own eyes. The 
speaker paid no attention to this interruption and the audience 
appeared not to notice it, but began to exchange reports among 
themselves. The speaker added that he had found negroes in 
the North, well dressed and looking like men — for the first time 
in their lives — men who were simply " bums " at home. In 
excusing the indisposition of some negroes toward work, he 
said, " How in the world can you expect a man to work faith- 
fully all day long for fifty cents? " ^ 

Among the important stimuli were the rumors in circulation. 
When a community is wrought up, it is less difficult to believe 
remarkable tales. To persons beyond the influence of this ex- 
citement it is somewhat difficult to conceive how the rumor that 
the Germans were on their way through Texas to take the 
southern States could have been believed. And yet it is re- 
ported that this extravagant fiction was taken seriously in some 
quarters. On the outskirts of Meridian, Mississippi, a band of 
gypsies was encamped. The rumor gained circulation that the 
Indians were coming back to retake their land lost years ago. 
It was further rumored that the United States Government 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration from Mississippi. 

2 Ibid. 



STIMULATION OF THE MOVEMENT 29 

was beginning a scheme to transport all negroes from the South 
to break up the Black Belt. Passed from mouth to mouth, un- 
restrainedly these reports became verities. 

It was further asserted on the word and honor " of one in 
position to know " that the Chicago packing houses needed and 
would get fifty thousand negroes before the end of the year. 
One explanation of the belief that the South was overrun with 
labor agents was the fact that every strange face came to be 
recognized as a man from the North looking for laborers. 
If he denied it, they simply thought he was concealing his iden- 
tity from the police, and if he said nothing, his silence was re- 
garded as sufficient affirmation. Hundreds of disappointments 
are to be traced to the rumor that a train would leave on a 
certain date. Hundreds would come to the station prepared to 
leave and, when no agent appeared, purchased their own tickets. 

The questions of wages and privileges were grossly featured. 
Some men, on being questioned, supposed that it was possible 
for every common laborer to receive from $4 to $10 a day, and 
that $50 a week was not an unusual wage. The strength of this 
belief has been remarked by several social agencies in the North 
which attempted to supply the immigrants with work. The 
actual wages paid, though much in excess of those they had 
been receiving, were often disappointing. Similarly in the mat- 
ter of privilege and " rights " it was later revealed that un- 
bounded liberty was not to be found in the North. The singular 
cases of misconduct, against which the more sober minded 
preached, possibly had their root in the beautiful and one-sided 
pictures of the North which came to the South. 

The Chicago Defender,- 2i weekly negro newspaper, with its 
pronounced radical utterances, its criticism of the South, its 
policy of retaliation, etc., contributed greatly to the exodus.^ 

1 Some of the material prepared by the Defender for consumption in the 
South was as follows : 

" Turn a deaf ear to everybody. You see they are not lifting their laws 
to help you, are they? Have they stopped their Jim Crow cars? Can you 
buy a Pullman sleeper where you wish? Will they give you a square deal 
in court yet? When a girl is sent to prison she becomes the mistress of the 
guards and others in authority, and women prisoners are put on the streets 
to work— something they don't do to a white woman. And our leaders 



30 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

Its influence can be imagined when, after reading the southern 
white papers with only occasional references to the negroes 
which might be called commendable and numerous articles which 
were for the most part distasteful, negroes could read the things 
they wanted to hear most, expressed in a manner in which they 
would not dare express them. It voiced the unexpressed thoughts 
of many and made accusations for which they themselves would 
have been severely handled. Freud's theory of the suppressed 
wish finds a happy illustration in this rage over the Chicago De- 
fender. Expressed in terms of figures, the circulation of the 
paper at the beginning of the movement was something like 
50,000. In 1918 it had grown to 125,000. It had a large cir- 
culation in Mississippi and the supply was usually bought up 
on the first day of its arrival. Copies were passed around until 
worn out. One prominent negro asserted that " negroes grab 
the Defender like a hungry mule grabs fodder." In Gulfport, 
Mississippi, a man was regarded " intelligent " if he read the 
Defender. It was said that in Laurel, Mississippi, old men who 
did not know how to read would buy it because it was regarded 
as precious. 

It was this paper that named the exodus " The Great Northern 
Drive," and set the date May 15th, announced the arrivals and 
took responsibility for inducing " the poor brethren " from 
the South. It was accused of ruining Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 
by promoting this rush to the North. The sale of this paper 
was, therefore, forbidden in several towns in the South. A 
correspondent said : " White people are paying more attention 
to the race in order to keep them in the South, but the Chicago 
Defender has emblazoned upon their minds ' Bound for the 
Promised Land.' " 



will tell you the South is the best place for you. Turn a deaf ear to the 
scoundrel, and let him stay. Above all, see to it that that jumping-jack 
preacher is left in the South, for he means you no good here in the 
North. . . . Once upon a time we permitted other people to think for us — 
today we are thinking and acting for ourselves, with the result that our 
' friends ' are getting alarmed at our progress. We'd like to oblige these 
unselfish (?) souls and remain slaves in the South; but to other sections 
of the country we have said, as the song goes, ' I hear you calling me,' and 
have boarded the train, singing, ' Good-bye, Dixie Land.' " 



STIMULATION OF THE MOVEMENT 31 

In answer to the warnings of the South against the rigors of 
the northern winters, the Defender said : 

To die from the bite of frost is far more glorious than at the hands of a 
mob. I beg you, my brother, to leave the benighted land. You are a free 
man. Show the world that you will not let false leaders lead you. Your neck 
has been in the yoke. Will you continue to keep it there because some " white 
folks' nigger" wants you to? Leave for all quarters of the globe. Get out 
of the South. Your being there in the numbers in which you are gives the 
southern politician too strong a hold on your progress. ... So much has 
been said through the white papers in the South abcut the members of the 
race freezing to death in the North. They freeze to death down South 
when they don't take care of themselves. There is no reason for any human 
being staying in the Southland on this bugaboo handed out by the white 
press.^ 

If you can freeze to death in the North and be free, why freeze to death 
in the South and be a slave, where your mother, sister and daughter are 
raped and burned at the stake ; where your father, brother and sons are 
treated with contempt and hung to a pole, riddled with bullets at the least 
mention that he does not like the way he is treated. Come North then, all 
you folks, both good and bad. If you don't behave yourselves up here, the 
jails will certainly make you wish you had. For the hard-working man 
there is plenty of work — if you really want it. The Defender says come.^ 

1 The following clippings are taken from these white papers : 

" Aged Negro Frozen to Death — Albany, Ga., February 8. 

"Yesterday the dead body of Peter Crowder, an old negro, was found in 
an out-of-the-way place where he had been frozen to death during the recent 
cold snap." — Macon Telegraph. 

" Dies from Exposure — Spartanburg, S. C., February 6. 
" Marshall Jackson, a negro man, who lived on the farm of J. T. Harris 
near Campobello, Sunday night froze to death." — South Carolina State. 

" Negro Frozen to Death in Fireless Gretna Hut. 

" Coldest weather in the last four years claimed a victim Friday night, 
when Archie Williams, a negro, was frozen to death in his bed in a little 
hut in the outskirts of Gretna." — New Orleans Item, February 4. 

" Negro Woman Frozen to Death Monday. 

" Harriet Tolbert, an aged negro woman, was frozen to death in her home 
at 18 Garibaldi Street early Monday morning during the severe cold." — 
Atlanta Constitution, February 6. 

2 Articles such as the following kept alive the spirit of the exodus : 

" Tampa, Florida, January 19. J. T. King, supposed to be a race leader, 
is using his wits to get on the good side of the white people by calling a 
meeting to urge our people not to migrate north. King has been termed 
a ' good nigger ' by his pernicious activity on the emigration question. Re- 
ports have been received here that all who have gone north are at work 
and pleased with the splendid conditions in the North. It is known here 
that in the North there is a scarcity of labor; mills and factories are open 
to them. People are not paying any attention to King and are packing and 
ready to travel north to the ' promised land.' " 

" Jackson, Miss., March 23. J. H. Thomas, Birmingham, Alabama, Browns- 
ville Colony, has been here several weeks and is very much pleased with 



32 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

The idea that the South is a bad place, unfit for the habitation 
of colored folk, was duly emphasized. Conditions most dis- 
tasteful to negroes were exaggerated and given first prominence. 
In this the Defender had a clear field, for the local colored 
newspapers dared not make such unrestrained utterances.^ In 

the North. He is working at the Pullman Shops, making twice as much as 
he did at home. Mr. Thomas says the ' exodus ' will be greater later on in 
the year, that he did not find four feet of snow or would freeze to death. 
He lives at 346 East Thirty-fifth St." 

" Huntsville, Alabama, January 19. Fifteen families, all members of the 
race, left here today for Pittsburgh, Pa., where they will take positions as 
butlers and maids, getting sixty to seventy-five dollars a month against 
fifteen and twenty paid here. Most of them claim that they have letters 
from their friends who went early and made good saying that there was 
plenty of work, and this field of labor is short owing to the vast amount of 
men having gone to Europe and not returned." 

" Shreveport, La., April 13. The Business Men's League held a meeting 
here and the white daily papers reported that it was for the purpose of 
discouraging people from going north. The meeting had no such object. On 
the other hand, members of the race claim that on May 15th they will be 
found leaving with the great northern drive." 

" The northern invasion has already started, much earlier than predicted. 
Many members of the race refused to wait until spring. They have started 
despite the snow and cold. Last week thirty-one came here from Hatties- 
burg, Mississippi, and said they intended to stay. They were well clothed, 
having heavy overcoats and rubber overshoes." 

" Memphis, Tenn., June \. Your correspondent took a walk to Central 
station Saturday night just to see what was going on, and to his surprise 
and delight, he saw gathered there between 1,500 and 2,000 race men and 
women. Number 4, due to leave for Chicago at 8 :00 o'clock, was held up 
twenty minutes so that those people who hadn't purchased tickets might be 
taken aboard. It was necessary to add two additional eighty-foot steel 
coaches to the Chicago train in order to accommodate the race people, and 
at the lowest calculation there were more than 1,200 taken aboard." 

" St. Louis, Mo., May 11. The Defender propaganda to leave sections of 
the South where they find conditions intolerable is receiving a hearty 
response. A communication was received by a Defender representative last 
week from Houston, Texas, asking for information relative to conditions 
in this city and the writer stated a number of persons were planning to 
leave Houston for this city later on. The information was promptly and 
cheerfully given." 

" Tallulah, La., January 19. This time it's a professor. Heretofore it 
has been the preachers who have been paid by the white men of the South 
to tell our people that the North is no place for them. A bigger lie never 
was uttered. But now it is a professor. He is licking the white man's hand 
to hold a little $35 job as a backwoods school teacher. He got his name in 
the papers (white) as 'good nigger.' Just because this 'would-be pro- 
fessor ' has been making speeches, asking that our people remain here and 
be treated like dogs, they are starting a crusade north, and by Easter there 
will not be one left to tell the tale." 

1 " Forest City, Ark., February 16. David B. Smith (white) is on trial 
for life for the brutal murder of a member of the race, W. H. Winford, 
who refused to be whipped like others. This white man had the habit of 
making his 'slave' submit to this sort of punishment and when Winford 



STIMULATION OF THE MOVEMENT 33 

fact, reading the Chicago Defender provided a very good sub- 
stitute for the knowledge which comes through travel. It had 
the advantage of bringing the North to them. Without fear 
of exaggeration it is safe to say its policy was successful in 
inciting thousands of restless negroes to venture north, where 
they were assured of its protection and the championship of their 
cause. There are in Chicago migrants who attribute their pres- 
ence in the North to its encouraging pictures of relief from 
conditions at home with which they became more and more 
dissatisfied, as they read. 

The setting of a definite date was another stimulus. The 
great northern drive was scheduled to begin May 15, 1917. 
This date, or the week following, singularly corresponds with 
the date of the heaviest rush to the North, the periods of greatest 
temporary congestion and the awakening of the North to the 
presence of their guests/ Letters to the Chicago Defender and 
to the social agencies in the North informed them that they 
were preparing to come in the great drive. One of many such 
letters received is presented. 

April 24, 1917. 
Mr. R. S. Abbott, 

Editor, the Chicago Defender, 
Sir: 

I have been reading the Defender for one year or more, and last February 
I read about the great northern drive to take place May 15, on Thursday, 
and now I can hear so many people speaking of an excursion to the North 
on the 15th of May for $3. My husband is in the North already working, 
and he wants us to come up in May, so I want to know if it is true about 
the excursion. I am getting ready and, oh, so many others also, and we 
want to know is that true so we can be in the drive. So please answer at 
once. We are getting ready. 

Yours, 

This was perhaps the most popular date, but there were others, 
of which August 15 was one. Usually the dates set were for 
Wednesday and Saturday nights, following pay days. 

refused to stand for it, he was whipped to death with a ' black snake ' whip. 
The trial of Smith is attracting very little attention. As a matter of fact, 
the white people here think nothing of it as the dead man is a ' nigger.' 
This very act. coupled with other recent outrages that have been heaped 
upon our people, are causing thousands to leave, not waiting for the great 
spring movement in M.ay." 



34 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

Personal appeals in the form of letters have a recognized 
weight in influencing action. The United States mail was about 
the most active and efficient labor agent. The manner in which 
the first negroes left made great opportunities for letter writing. 
It is to be remembered that the departure of one person was re- 
garded always in the light of an experiment. The understanding 
existed between a man and his friends that he would honestly 
inform them of conditions in the North. Letters were passed 
around and read before large groups. A woman from Hatties- 
burg is accredited with having sent back a letter which enticed 
away over 200 persons. A tailor who had settled in a town 
of white people in the West wrote a letter which was read in 
a church. It explained the advantages of the free schools open 
to all, and the privilege to ride and to go where one pleases. 
The reading of the letter brought forth long and loud applause. 
A man who had left home, writes back to his friend yet un- 
decided : 

Mike, old boy, I was promoted on the first of the month. I was made 
first assistant to the head carpenter. When he is out of place I take every- 
thing in charge and was raised to $95 per month. You know I know my 
stuff. What's the news generally around H'burg? I should have been 
here twenty years ago. I just begin to feel like a man. It's a great deal 
of pleasure in knowing that you have got some privileges. My children are 
going to the same school with the whites and I don't have to humble to 
no one. I have registered. Will vote the next election and there isn't any 
' yes, sir, and no, sir.' It's all yes and no, and no, Sam, and Bill, y 

The man has long since been joined by his friend. 

The pastor of a Hattiesburg church received a letter from 
one of his members with the extravagant assertion that the 
people whose funerals he had preached were in Chicago (mean- 
ing Heaven) because they were good Christians. To give as- 
surance on the question of weather migrants in the North would 
mention the fact that they were writing with their coats off. 
A fact which strengthened the belief in the almost incredible 
wages offered in the North was the money sent back to the 
families in the South. A man whose wife had preceded him 
wrote that she was making $3.50 a day in charge of a bluing 
works in Chicago, and actually sent home $15 every two weeks. 



STIMULATION OF THE MOVEMENT 35 

Another man wrote that he was in Gary working at his trade 
making sometimes as much as $7 a day. He sent home $30 
every two weeks. Fully one-half, or perhaps even more of 
those who left, did so at the solicitation of friends through 
correspondence.^ 

Despite the restraints on loose talk in encouragen^ent of 
the exodus, there were other means of keeping the subject alive. 
One method, of course, was the circulation of literature from 
the North. One of the most novel schemes was that of a 
negro dentist in a southern town who had printed on the reverse 
side of his business cards quotations from rather positive asser- 
tions by northerners on the migration.' The northern press 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration from Mississippi. 

2 " There is no class of people and no ethical question that will not feel 
the effects of the war. The negroes of this country who go to France to 
fight, or who replace workingmen who go as soldiers will demand, and 
justly so. full American rights. The United States can not stand before 
the world as the champion of freedom and democracy and continue to burn 
men alive and lynch them without fair trial. The National Association for 
the Advancement of Colored People calls upon this country to 'clear her 
conscience before she can fight for the world's good,' by abolishing lynching 
and ceasing all oppression of negroes. This is a national problem and more 
particularly one of the South. In Europe there are practically no race 
distinctions. A negro can mix with white folk as an equal, just as a 
Spaniard, for example, does here: even intermarriage is not regarded as 
miscegenation. The race problem here is a different matter, however, as 
even the more intelligent negroes themselves will acknowledge. The negro 
should be assured all the protection and rights that go with American 
citizenship, but in this is not involved intermarriage or social equality.' — 
Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, October 13, 1917. 

" The foreign laborer has been called home to bear arms for his country. 
The daily death toll and waste and the recently enacted immigration law 
make it certain that he will not soon return in great numbers. As a result 
a large market exists for the negro laborer in localities in which he would 
have been considered an impudent trespasser had he attempted to enter a 
few years ago. The history of the world from the days of Moses to the 
present shows that where one race has been subjugated, oppressed or 
proscribed by another and exists in large numbers, permanent relief has 
come in one or two ways—amalgamation or migration. The thought of 
amalgamation is not to be entertained. If conditions in the South for the 
colored man are to be permanently improved, many of those who now live 
there should migrate and scatter throughout the North, East and West. I 
believe the prese'nt opportunity providential."— Hon. John C. Ashbury, Phila- 
delphia Bar. 

" This is the psychological moment to say to the American white govern- 
ment from every pulpit and platform and through every newspaper, 'Yes, 
we are loyal and patriotic. Boston Common, Bunker Hill, Gettysburg, Fort 
Pillow, Appomattox, San Juan Hill and Carrizal will testify to our loyalty. 
While we love our flag and country, we do not believe in fighting for the 
■ protection of commerce on the high seas until the powers that be give us 
at least some verbal assurance that the property and lives of the members 



36 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

early welcomed the much needed negro laborers to the North 
and leaders of thought in that section began to upbraid the 
South for its antagonistic attitude towards the welfare of the 
negroes, who at last had learned to seek a more congenial home. 
A stronger influence than this, though not quite so frequent, 
was the returned migrant who was a living example of the 
prosperity of the North. It was a frequent complaint that 
these men were as effective as labor agents in urging negro 
laborers to go north. There are reported numerous instances 
of men who came to visit their families and returned with thirty 
to forty mien. It has been suspected, and with a strong sugges- 
tion of truth, that many of these were supplied with funds for 
the trip by the northern firms which employed them. A woman 
whose daughter had gone north had been talking of her daugh- 
ter's success. The reports were so opposite to the record of 
the girl at home that they were not taken seriously. Soon, how- 
ever, the daughter came home with apparently unlimited money 
and beautiful clothes, and carried her mother back with her. 
This was sufficient. It was remarked afterwards : " If she 
can make $2.50 a day as lazy as she was, I know I can make 
$4." ' 

The labor agents were a very important factor in stimulating 
the movement. The number at work in the South appears to 
have been greatly exaggerated. Agents were more active in 
large cities where their presence was not so conspicuous. It 
was difficult to discover because of the very guarded manner 
in which they worked. One, for example, would walk briskly 
down the street through a group of negroes and, without turn- 

of our race arc going to be protected on land from Maine to Mississippi.' 
Let us have the courage to say to the white American people, ' Give us the 
same rights which you enjoy, and then we will fight by your side with all 
of our might for every international right on land and sea.' If this kind 
of talk is not loyalty, then I am disloyal ; if this is not patriotism, then I 
am unpatriotic; if this is treason, then I am a traitor. It is not that I love 
Csesar less, but these black Romans more, who have been true to the flag 
for two hundred and fifty years. It is infinitely more disgraceful and 
outrageous to hang and burn colored men, boys and women without a trial 
in the times of peace than it is for Germans in times of war to blow up 
ships loaded with mules and molasses." — Reverend A. Clayton Powell, New 
York, N. Y. 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration from Mississippi. 



STIMULATION OF THE MOVEMENT 37 

ing his head, would say in a low tone, " Anybody want to go 
to Chicago, see me." That was sufficient. Many persons were 
found to remark frequently on the strange silence which negroes 
en masse managed to maintain concerning the movement of the 
agents. A white man remarked that it was the first time there 
had ever happened anything about which he could not get full 
information from some negro. Agents were reported, at one 
time or another, in every section from which the migrants 
went. When the vigilance of the authorities restricted their 
activities they began working through the mails. Many sections 
were flooded with letters from the North to persons whose 
names had been obtained from migrants in the North or through 
a quiet canvass of the community by unobstructed solicitors.^ 

Poems on the migration were also strong stimuli. In some 
instances arrests of persons circulating them w^ere made. A 
bit of poetry which received widespread popularity was one 
called " Bound for the Promised Land." It was said that this 
piece of poetry was responsible for much trouble. The Chicago 
Defender reported on June 1, 1017, that five young men were 
arraigned before Judge John E. Schwartz of Savannah, Georgia, 
for reading poetry. The police contended that they were in- 
citing riot in the city and over Georgia. Two of the men w^ere 
sent for thirty days to Brown Farm, a place not fit for human 
beings. Tom Amaca was arrested for having " Bound for the 
Promised Land," a poem which had been recently published in 
the Defender. J. N. Chisholm and A. P. Walker were arrested 
there because they were said to be the instigators." Another 
very popular poem wndely circulated was entitled " Farewell ! 
We're Good and Gone." It w^as said that this poem influenced 
thousands to go. Other poems on the migration were " North- 
ward Bound," " The Land of Hope " and " Negro Migration " 
and " The Reason Why." 

1 Work and Johnson, Report on the Migration during the World War. 

2 Ibid. 



CHAPTER IV 
The Spread of the Movement 

In the first communities visited by representatives of northern 
capital, their offers created unprecedented commotion. Drivers 
and teamsters left their wagons standing in the street. Workers, 
returning home, scrambled aboard the trains for the North 
without notifying their employers or their families. The crowds 
that blackened the pool rooms and " hangouts " faded away 
as the trains continued to leave. Wild rumors about the North 
crept into circulation and received unquestioning credence. 
Songs about Pennsylvania, the spontaneous expression of anxi- 
ety and joy over the sudden revelation of a new world, floated 
about on the lips of the children. Homes were thrown on the 
market and sold at ruinously low prices. 

It was observed that the beginnings in each new community 
exhibited the same characteristics. This is due in part to a 
pretty universal state of unrest among negroes throughout the 
South. Although the first State entered by representatives of 
northern capital was Florida, their efforts were not confined 
to that commonwealth. And again, although the Pennsylvania 
and Erie Railroads were the first to import negroes in large 
numbers, they were not alone in the field very long. The steel 
mills of the East and the railroads of the West soon followed — 
each selecting States from which egress was easy and con- 
venient. The authorities of the cities of Florida, when they 
began to engage themselves in the suppression of recruiting 
agents, succeeded in scattering them to other fields where their 
mere presence, preceded as it was by the news of their mission 
in the South, was sufficient to attract, first, all of the landless 
labor, then to loosen the steady workman wedded to the soil, 
and finally to carry away the best of the working classes. Quite 
naturally southeastern Georgia was the second district to feel 

38 



THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT 39 

the drain of the exodus. These workers were carried into 
Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey for the maintenance 
work of the roads. North Carolina was next entered; then 
finally Virginia which had been sending many negroes into 
New York, Pennsylvania and New Jersey for a number of 
years.^ / 

Numerous illustrations show the popular state of mind at 
the beginning, when every one was feverish. Men would loudly 
decry the folly of breaking up their homes, the result of years 
of unrelenting toil, and venturing into the unknown North, and 
within less than twenty-four hours, would leave themselves. A 
good citizen would talk with another about the apparent in- 
sanity of those negroes who had " contracted the northern fever." 
They would condemn their acts with their strongest words. 
Hardly before another day could pass, one of the two would 
disappear, having imitated the recklessness of the very people 
he had so recently condemned. 

One man in telling of how they acted, asserts " You could 

see a man today and he would be calling the people who were 

leaving all kinds of names; he could even beat you when it 

came to calling them fools for going north. The next day 

when you met him he wouldn't talk so loud and the next day 

he wouldn't let you see him. That would be the last of him, 

because, unless you went to the depot, you wouldn't see him 

again. Whenever I saw them shying off from me, I always 

knew what they had up their sleeves." It was " just naturally 

fashionable" to leave for the North. A man would make up 

his mind to go and proceed forthwith to persuade his friends. 

If they refused, they no longer had any interests in common. 

In talking with a man who had persistendy refused to leave, 

he declared that he had lost practically every friend he had, 

simply because he did not agree with them on " the northern 

question." For the pastors of churches it was a most trying 

ordeal. They must watch their congregations melt away and 

could say nothing. If they spoke in favor of the movement, 

they were in danger of a clash with the authorities. If they 

1 Work, Repo'-t on the Migration from Florida. 



40 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

discouraged it, they were accused of being bought up to hold 
negroes in bondage. If a pastor attempted to persuade negroes 
to stay, his congregation and his collection would be cut down 
and in some cases his resignation demanded. In some of the 
smaller communities the pastors settled this difficulty by follow- 
ing their flock, as was the case of three who left Hattiesburg, 
Mississippi, following their congregations. Two lumber com- 
panies in Mississippi employed a negro to lecture for the purpose 
of discouraging the exodus. He was handsomely paid, but he 
was unheeded. Even now he is held in contempt by his former 
friends. 

The devout and religious saw God in the movement. It was 
inspired, they said, else why could so many thousand negroes 
all be obsessed at once with the same impulse. There were set 
afloat rumors that a great calamity was about to befall the 
Southland. In Georgia and Alabama, hundreds believed that 
God had cursed the land when he sent droughts and floods and 
destructive pests to visit them. The number of negroes needed 
in the North was counted in millions; the wages offered were 
fabulous and the letters that came from the vanguard painted 
pictures of a land of plenty. From some communities a small 
group would leave, promising to inform those behind of the 
actual state of affairs. For a week or more there would follow 
a tense period of " watchful waiting " and never ending anxiety, 
when finally there would arrive a card bearing the terse report 
" Everything pritty," or " Home ain't nothing like this." On 
this assurance, a reckless disposition of household effects would 
follow.^ 

The towns quite naturally were the first to feel the effect. 
There, the pass rider — the labor agent — could move about more 
freely. People lived in closer contact and news circulated more 
rapidly ; the papers came in regularly and the negroes themselves 
could see those leaving. On market days when the country folk 
reached town they got their first impulse from the commotion. 
Young country boys failed to return to quiet isolation, and 
sturdy sensible farmers whose whole lives had been spent on 

^ Work and Johnson, Report on the Migration during the World War. 



THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT 41 

the farm, could not resist the temptation. As they returned 
they informed their neighbors, saying: "They are leaving town 
by the thousands," or " Man, colored folks are leaving in droves 
for the North." There are cases of men who left their fields 
half plowed and journeyed to the city and thence to the North. 
In other communities, the beginning would be a timid dribble 
to the larger cities or directly to the North.^ 

The state of mind of the community under the influence of the 
first effects of the " fever " is illustrated in authenticated ac- 
counts of persons who witnessed the exodus from different cities: 

The most interesting thing is how these people left. They were selling 
out everything they had or in a manner giving it away; selling their homes, 
mules, horses, cows, and everything about them but their trunks. All 
around in the country, people who were so old they could not very well get 
about were leaving. Some left with six to eight very small children and 
babies half clothed, no shoes on their feet, hungry, not anything to eat and 
not even a cent over their train fare. Some would go to the station and 
wait there three or four days for an agent who was carrying them on passes. 
Others of this city would go in clubs of fifty and a hundred at a time in 
order to get reduced rates. They usually left on Wednesday and Saturday 
nights. One Wednesday night I went to the station to see a friend of mine 
who was leaving. I could not get in the station, there were so many people 
turning like bees in a hive. Officers would go up and down the tracks 
trying to keep the people back. One old lady and man had gotten on the 
train. They were patting their feet and singing and a man standing nearby 
asked, "Uncle, where are you going?" The old man replied, " Wlell, son, 
I'm gwine to the promised land." 2 

1 The Chicago Defender, 1916, 1917. 

2 " Whether he knew what he was going for or not," says one, " he did 
not take time to consider. The slogan was 'going north.' Some never 
questioned the whys or wherefores but went ; led as if, by some mysterious 
unseen hand which was compelling them on, they just couldn't stay. One 
old negro when asked why he was leaving, replied : ' I don't know why or 
where I'm going, but I'm on my way.' The northern fever was just simply 
contagious ; they couldn't help themselves. So far as I know, and I think 
1 am about right, this fever started in and around the vicinity of Bessemer, 
Alabama. One little village, especially, there was owned by a white man 
from my home who had gone there the year before carrying some negroes 
with him. Th-e negroes started leaving this village so fast that he wouldn't 
allow any more tickets to be sold in this, village, but the negroes only 
scoffed at this. They left the plantations at night and went to other villages 
for tickets. The fever had now begun and, like all other contagious diseases, 
it soon spread. I arrived home on May 4 and found my native town all 
in a bustle. Now, what was it all about? The next club for the North was 
leaving on May 18. The second-hand furniture store and junk shop were 
practically overflowing. People were selling out valuable furniture such as 
whole bedroom sets for only $2. One family that I knew myself sold a 



42 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

" When the laboring man got paid off," said a Jackson, Mis- 
sissippi, man, " he bought himself a suit of overalls and a 
paper valise and disappeared." Even the young married women 
refused to wait any longer than the time required to save rail- 
road fare. It's strange that when a negro got a notion to leave 
and he could not sell or give away, he simply locked up his 
house and left the key with his neighbor. Families with $1,000 
worth of furniture have been known to sell it for $150. A negro 
in Jackson was buying a $1,000 house, on which he had paid 
$700. When the " fever " struck the town, he sold it for $100 
and left. 

There was related this instance of a number of negro laborers : 

On a plantation in south Georgia, where fifteen or more families were 
farming as tenants, there had been a great deal of confusion and suffering 
among the people because of the lack of sufficient food and clothing. There 
were the Joneses, a family of nine, the Harrisons, a family of ten, and the 
Battles, a family of six. No family on the place had an allowance of more 
than $25 per month for food and clothing. When this allowance gave out, 
nothing could be gotten until the next month and the tenants dared not 
leave their farms to work elsewhere. The owner of this plantation lived 
in town ten miles away and only visited the farm about once a week. Much 
to his surprise, on one of his weekly visits, he found all the homes and 
farms deserted except one. On that were two old men, Uncle Ben and 
Uncle Joe, who had been left behind because they were unable to secure 
passes. Uncle Ben and Uncle Joe sorrowfully told the landlord all that had 

beautiful expensive home for only $100. In fact people almost gave away 
their houses and furnishings. Finally, the night for the club to leave came 
and the crowds at the train were so large that the policemen had to just 
force them back in order to allow the people to get on and off. After the 
train was filled with as many people as it could hold, the old engine gave 
one or two puffs and pulled out, bound for the promised land." 

" A very close neighbor of ours," says one, " left for the North. He 
had a very small family. He left because his youngest son, who had been 
north a few months, came home with a considerable amount of money 
which he had saved while on his trip. The father made haste and sold all 
he had. His son got him a pass. He said it was far better for him to be 
in the North where he could stand up like a man and demand his rights ; 
so he is there. His daughter Mary remained at home for some time after 
the family had gone. She finally wrote her father to send her a pass, which 
he did. She had a small boy that was given her. She was not able to 
take him and care for him as she would like. Her next door neighbor, a 
very fine woman who had no children, wanted a child so Mary gave it to 
her. To secure better wages and more freedom his oldest son went to 
East St. Louis and remained there until June. Then he left for Chicago. 
This family sold their chickens and rented their cattle to some of the people 
in that community." — Work and Johnson, Report on the Migration during 
the World War. 



THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT 43 

happened, emphasizing the fact that they were the only ones who had 
remained loyal to him. Then they told him their needs. The landlord, 
thinking that the old negroes were so faithful, rewarded them with a good 
sum of money and left with the assurance that they would see to the crops 
being worked. Xo sooner had the landlord left than these old men with 
grips packed and with the money they had received, boarded the train to 
join their companions in the North. ^ 

As an example of the irresistible force which characterized 
the movement, one old negro made the remark : " I sorter wanted 
to go myself. I didn't know just where I wanted to go. I just 
wanted to git away with the rest of them." A woman in speak- 
ing of the torture of solitude which she experienced after the 
first wave passed over her town, said : " You could go out on 
the street and count on your fingers all the colored people you 
saw during the entire day. Now and then a disconsolate look- 
ing Italian storekeeper would come out in the street, look up 
and down and walk back. It was a sad looking place, and so 
quiet it gave you the shivers." ^ 

In the heat of the excitement families left carrying members 
dangerously ill. There is reported one interesting case of a 
family with one of its members sick with pneumonia. As soon 
as the woman was able to sit up, she was carried away. At 
St. Louis it was found necessary to stop because of her con- 
dition. Finding that she could not recover, they proceeded to 
Chicago, where she died. Several of the migrants have seen 
fit to make heroes of themselves by declining to return to the 
South even on the advice of a physician. Thus, a certain min- 
ister is said to have refused to be sent home when his physician 
had told him there was a possible chance for recovery in his 
home in the South. He said that he preferred to die and be 
buried in the North. 

By the summer of 1916, the exodus from Florida had grown 
to such ungovernable bounds that the more stable classes of 
negroes became unsettled. A body, representing the influential 
colored citizens of the State, wrote the editor of the New 
York Age: ^ 

1 Work and Johnson, Report on the Migration during the World War. 

2 Ibid. 

3 The New York Age, August 16, 1916. 



44 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

Jacksonville, Fla., August 10, 1916. 
To the Editor of the Age: 

To be brief, 1 beg to state that the ( ) of this city, in a regular 

meeting, voted last ISIonday that I write your paper asking advice on the 
subject of migration which is large and really alarming to the people of 
this State, for thousands of people (colored) are leaving this State, going 
to Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland and New Jersey, where it is stated 
they are wanted as laborers in various pursuits. In your mind and to 
your knowledge, do you think it is the best thing for them to do, and are 
they bettering condition financially, morally and religiously; even in man- 
hood, citizenship, etc. Our ■ has been asked by the white and colored 

people here to speak in an advisory way. but we decided to remain silent 
until we can hear from reliable sources in the North and East, and you 
have been designated as one of the best. So to speak, our city is in a tur- 
moil — in suspense. You have doubtless heard of the great exodus of negroes 
to the North, and we presume you have given it some thought, and even 
investigated it. Please give the benefit of your findings and reasons for 
your conclusion. 

Thanking you in advance for a prompt and full reply to the correspond- 
ing secretary, Yours truly. 

Corresponding Secretary, 

Caught up in the wave of enthusiasm that swept over the 
South, these migrants could not resist the impulse to leave. The 
economic loss resulting from their reckless departure expressed 
in terms of dollars and cents is another story, and probably 
can never be even approximately estimated. What seems of 
most interest here is that they were in the frame of mind for 
leaving. They left as though they were fleeing some curse; they 
were willing to make almost any sacrifice to obtain a railroad 
ticket and they left with the intention of staying. What has 
been described, of course, can not be construed to apply to 
every one who left. There were those of the business and 
professional classes who were promoted by other motives than 
those which impelled the masses of migrants. There were, for 
example, migrants who in the South had held positions of rela- 
tively high standing by virtue of the fact that there do exist 
two institutional standards, the white and the black. Measured 
by the requirements of the latter, they stood high in the respect 
of the community, but when removed to the North they suffered 
in the rank of their occupation. A college president or even 



THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT 45 

a school teacher had Httle opportunity in their respective fields 
in the North. They had, therefore, migrated because deserted 
by their neighbors they were left with a prospect of a diminishing 
social importance. 

Professional men followed their practice. In Chicago there 
are at least six lawyers from Mississippi, with practically the 
same clientele. At the height of the exodus, one of these came 
to Chicago and secured admission to the bar in order that he 
might be in a position to move quickly if his practice were too 
severely cut down. Several physicians of the State have re- 
marked that they would now be in the East or the North if 
reciprocity with the State of Mississippi were possible.^ Busi- 
ness men have been reported to have moved North for the sole 
purpose of collecting debts. Others are cooler and more calcu- 
lating in preparing to leave. One pharmacist, for instance, plans 
to move within the next five years. It is true that some of 
those who came in the movement would have come even if no 
one else had decided to migrate. The influence of the general 
state of mind, however, on the great majority is of most con- 
cern in determining the forces behind the exodus. ' 

Possibly the numbers to leave the South would have been 
considerably smaller had there not been existent so universal 
a readiness to respond to a call in almost any direction. The 
causes of this state of mind are stated elsewhere. What is im- 
portant here is the behavior of the persons leaving which ex- 
erted such a compelling influence on their neighbors. The ac- 
tions are illustrative not only of the contagion of the movement, 
but of the fundamental emotions of the negroes who formed 
the exodus. Thus it was, for example, that the movement was 
called the " exodus " from its suggestive resemblance to the 
flight of the Israelites from Egypt, The Promised Land, Cross- 
ing over Jordan (the Ohio River), and Beulah Land. At times 
demonstrations took on a rather spectacular aspect, as when a 
party of 147 from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, while crossing the 
Ohio River, held solemn ceremonies. These migrants knelt 
down and prayed; the men stopped their watches and, amid 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration from Mississippi. 



46 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

tears of joy, sang the familiar songs of deliverance, " I done 
come out of the Land of Egypt with the good news." The songs 
following in order were " Beulah Land " and " Dwelling in 
Beulah Land." One woman of the party declared that she 
could detect an actual difference in the atmosphere beyond the 
Ohio River, explaining that it was much lighter and that she 
could get her breath more easily.^ 

The general direction of the spread of the movement was 
from east to west. While efforts were being made to check 
the exodus from Florida, the good citizens of Texas were first 
beginning to note a stir of unrest in their sections. On the 
other hand, the march of the boll weevil," that stripped the cotton 
fields of the South, was from west to east. Where there was 
wide unemployment, depression and poverty as a result of the 
great floods in Alabama, the cutting down of the cane area 
in Louisiana, the boll weevil in Mississippi, there were to be 
found thousands who needed no other inducement save the 
prospect of a good job. Indeed, it is alleged by some negroes 
that the myriads of labor agents who were said to be operating 
in the South were creatures of the imagination of an affrighted 
Southland; that but few were actually offering positions in the 
North; but their success was due to the overpowering desire 
on the part of the negroes to go." 

In September of 1916 a Georgia correspondent of the Atlanta 
Constitution wrote : 

For the past two or three weeks I have been receiving two or more letters 
daily from people in all sections of Georgia asking my advice as to the 
advisability of the colored people leaving the State in large numbers, as 
they have been leaving for the past six months. I think it is a mistake for 
our people to sell and practically give their earnings of years just on a 
hearsay that they will be given larger salaries and great advantages in some 
other part of the country. 

It will be remembered that the State of South Carolina was 
not immediately affected. It was not until the discussions bear- 
ing on the negro's insecurity and economic state, which accom- 

1 Johnson. Report on the Migration from Mississippi. 

2 Work, Report on the Migration from Alabama. 



THE SPREAD OF THE MOVEMENT 47 

panied the exodus in justification of it, had begun to be em- 
phasized as the cause of the movement that a great exodus 
took place iii the State. The principal occasion here was the 
unfortunate lynching of Anthony Crawford. A negro news- 
paper with a correspondent in Abbeville said : 

The lynching of Anthony Crawford has caused men and women of this 
State to get up and bodily leave it. The lynching of Mr. Crawford was 
unwarranted and uncalled fof and his treatment was such a disgrace that 
respectable people are leaving daily. When they begin to leave in the next 
few weeks like they have planned, this section will go almost into hysterics 
as some sections of Georgia and Alabama are doing because they are leaving 
for the North to better their industrial condition. Crawford is said to 
have been worth $100,000 in property. His wife and five sons have been 
ordered to leave. Word comes that neighbors are beginning to leave and 
the number the first of the week reached 1.000. The cry now is—" Go 
north, where there is some humanity, some justice and fairness." White 
people have accelerated the movement for the race to move north. 

This, however, accounts principally for the spread of the 
movement as accomplished by northern capital which, hitting 
the South in spots, made it possible for a wider dissemination 
of knowledge concerning the North, and actually placed in the 
North persons with numerous personal connections at home. 
The husbands and fathers who preceded their families could 
and did command that they follow, and they in turn influenced 
their neighbors. It appears that those who came on free trans- 
portation were largely men who had no permanent interests or 
who could afford to venture into strange fields. This indis- 
criminate method of many of the transporting agencies un- 
doubtedly made it possible for a great number of indigent and 
thriftless negroes simply to change the scene of their inaction. 
Yet it is unquestionably true that quite a large proportion of 
those who went North in this fashion were men honestly seek- 
ing remunerative employment, or persons who left through sheer 
desperation. In the second stage of the movement the club 
organizations, special parties and chartered cars did most per- 
haps to depopulate little communities and drain the towns and 
cities. 

This is easily to be accounted for. The free trains, carrying 



48 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

mainly men, were uncertain. They were operated for brief 
periods in towns, but were in such ill favor with the police 
that passengers were not safe. The clubs or special parties were 
worked up by a leader, who was often a woman of influence. 
She sought her friends and a convenient date was appointed 
Arrangements could also be made with friends in the North 
to receive them. The effectiveness of this method is seen in 
the fact that neighbor was soliciting neighbor and friend per- 
suading friend. Women in some of the northern cities, join- 
ing these clubs, assert that no persuasion was needed; that if a 
family found that it could not leave with the first groups, it 
felt desolate and willing to resort to any extremes and sacrifices 
to get the necessary fare. One woman in a little town in 
Mississippi, from which over half of the negro population had 
dribbled away, said : " If I stay here any longer, I'll go wild. 
Every time I go home I have to pass house after house of all 
my friends who are in the North and prospering. I've been 
trying to hold on here and keep my little property. There ain't 
enough people here I now know to give me a decent burial." 



CHAPTER V 
The Call of the Self-Sufficient North 

A surviving custom of servitude has consigned the mass of 
negroes to the lower pursuits of labor. Even at this it would 
be possible to live, for there would be work. In the North, 
however, such employment has been monopolized by foreign 
immigrants clearing Ellis Island at the rate of more than a 
million a year. The usurpation here brought no clash, for the 
number of negroes in the North scarcely equalled a year's immi- 
gration. From the ranks of unskilled labor, accordingly, they 
were effectively debarred, being used occasionally, and to their 
own detriment, as strike breakers and forced to receive smaller 
wages and to make more enemies. From the field of skilled labor 
they have been similarly debarred by the labor unions. 

The labor unions have felt that they had a good case against 
the negro workman. The complaints most commonly made 
are that he could be too easily used as a strike breaker and that 
he lacked interest in the trade union movement. As a matter 
of fact, both are true. An explanation of this attitude at the 
same time brings out another barrier opposed by the North to 
the free access of negroes to trades. Considerable wavering 
has characterized the attitude of the trade unions toward negro 
labor. The complexity of their organization makes it difficult 
to place any responsibility directly for their shortcomings. The 
fact remains, however, that despite the declaration of the con- 
stitution of the federated body that no distinction shall be made 
on account of sex, color or creed, negroes have been systemati- 
cally debarred from membership in a great number of labor 
bodies. Even where there has been no express prohibition in 
the constitution of local organizations the disposition to exclude 
them has been just as effective. Refused membership, they have 
easily become strike breakers. The indifference on the part of 

49 



50 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

negroes to the labor movement, however, may well be attributed 
also to ignorance of its benefits. In a number of cases sep- 
arate organizations have been granted them. 

With the foreign immigration silently crowding him back 
into the South, the labor unions, the prejudices of his white 
fellow workman and the paucity of his number making him 
ineffective as a competitor, driving him from the door of the 
factory and workshop, the negro workman, whatever his quali- 
fications, was prior to 1914 forced to enter the field of domestic 
service in the North and farming in the South. The conditions 
of livelihood in both sections kept him rigidly restricted to this 
limited economic sphere. In 1910 the total number of negroes 
ten years of age and over gainfully occupied in the United States 
was 5,192,535 or 71 per cent of the total number of negroes 
ten years of age and over. Of this number 2,848,258 or 55.2 
per cent were farmers and 1,122,182 or 21.4 per cent were 
domestic servants. Out of nearly five hundred occupations listed 
in the census of 1910 three-fourths of the negro working popu- 
lation were limited to two. In the manufacturing and mechani- 
cal pursuits throughout the entire United States there were em- 
ployed scarcely a half million or 12.1 per cent of the working 
population. 

Statistics of labor conditions in certain northern cities sup- 
port this conclusion. In New York City in 1910, of the negroes 
ten years of age and over gainfully occupied there were 33,110 
males and 26,352 females. Of the males there were engaged 
in domestic and personal service 16,724 or 47.6 per cent of the 
total number of males. Of the 26,352 females there were in 
domestic service 24,647 or 93.5 per cent of the total number. 
In the occupations which require any degree of skill and utilize 
the training of acquired trades, the percentage was exceedingly 
low. For example, in the manufacturing and mechanical pur- 
suits where there were the benefits of labor organizations and 
higher pay, there were but 4,504 negro males, or 13.6 per cent 
of the total number gainfully employed. The per cent of col- 
ored women in this line was considerably less. Taken together 
with the 1,993 dressmakers working outside of factories it was 



THE CALL OF THE SELF-SUFFICIENT NORTH 51 

but 8.3 per cent of the total number of females. This line of 
work, however, as all who are familiar with the manner in 
which it is done will recognize, is but another form of domestic 
service. Exclusive of this number the per cent drops to a figure 
a trifle over one per cent. 

Chicago, as another typical northern city, shows practically 
the same limitations on negro labor. In 1910 there were gain- 
fully employed in this city 27,317 negroes. Of this total 61.8 
per cent were engaged in domestic service. The negro women, 
of course, contributed a larger share to this proportion, theirs 
being 83.8 per cent of the females ten years of age and over 
gainfully employed. In the manufacturing and mechanical pur- 
suits there were engaged 3,466 males and 1,038 females, or 
18.7 and 1.1 per cent respectively.^ 

Detroit, viewed in the light of its tremendous increase, shows 
some of the widest differences. In 1910 there were 3,310 
negroes of working age profitably employed. Of this number 
there were but 410 males and 74 females engaged in the manu- 
facturing and mechanical pursuits. Forty-six of the total female 
working population were engaged in domestic service. Limited 
to a few occupations, the negroes naturally encountered there 
intense competition with the usual result of low wages and 
numerous other abuses. Whenever they entered new fields, as 
for instance those designated by the census as trade and trans- 
portation, they were generally compelled to accept wages below 
the standard to obtain such employment. 

There appears to have been a slow but steady progress 
throughout the North toward the accession of negroes to new 
lines of occupation. This change was forced, unquestionably, 
by the necessity for seeking new fields even at an economic loss. 
From the lines of work in which negroes for a long time have 
held unquestioned prestige, the competition of other nationalities 
has removed them. It is difficult now to find a barber shop 
operated by a negro in the business district of any northern 
city. The most dangerous competitor of the negro in northern 
industry has been the immigrant, who, unconscious of his subtle 

1 These facts appear in the United States Census Reports. 



52 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

inhibition on the negro's industrial development, crowded him 
out of employment in the North and fairly well succeeded in 
holding him in the South, After fifty years of European immi- 
gration the foreign born increased from two million to over 
thirteen million and only five per cent of them have settled in 
the South. Indeed, the yearly increase in foreign immigration 
equalled the entire negro population of the North. 

The competition in the North has, therefore, been in con- 
sequence bitter and unrelenting. Swedes and Germans have 
replaced negroes in some cities as janitors. Austrians, French- 
men and Germans have ousted them from the hotels, and Greeks 
have almost monopolized the bootblacking business. The decline 
in the domestic service quota of the working negro population, 
when there has been a decline, seems to have been forced. The 
figures of the United States census strengthen the belief that the 
World War has accomplished one of two things: It has either 
hastened the process of opening up larger fields or it has pre- 
vented a serious economic situation which doubtless would have 
followed the complete supplanting of negroes by foreigners in 
practically all lines. 

Before the war the immigration of foreigners from Europe 
was proceeding at the enormous rate of over a million a year. 
This influx was so completely checked by the war that the margin 
of arrivals over departures for the first three years, following 
the beginning of hostilities was the smallest in fifty years. The 
following is a statement taken from reports of the Bureau of 
Foreign Immigration. 

IMMIGRATION SINCE 1913 

Year Number 

1913 1,197,892 

1914 1,218,480 

1915 326,700 

1916 298,826 

1917 295,403 

The decrease of over 900,000 immigrants, on whom the in- 
dustries of the North depended, caused a grave situation. It 
must be remembered also that of the 295,403 arrivals in 1917, 



THE CALL OF THE SELF-SUFFICIENT NORTH 53 

there were included 32,346 English, 24,405 French and 13,350 
Scotch who furnish but a small quota of the laboring classes. 
There were also 16,438 Mexicans who came over the border, 
and who, for the most part, live and work in the Southwest. 
The type of immigration which kept prime the labor market 
of the North and Northwest came in through Ellis Island. Of 
these, Mr. Frederick C. Howe, Commissioner of Immigration, 
said that " only enough have come to balance those who have 
left." He adds further that " As a result, there has been a 
great shortage of labor in many of our industrial sections that 
may last as long as the war." 

With the establishment of new industries to meet the needs 
of the war, the erection of munitions plants for the manufacture 
of war materials and the enlargement of already existing indus- 
tries to meet the abnormally large demand for materials here 
and in Europe, there came a shifting in the existing labor 
supply in the North. There was a rush to the higher paid 
positions in the munitions plants. This, together with the ad- 
vancement of the white men to higher positions nearly depleted 
the ranks of common labor. The companies employing foreign 
labor for railroad construction work and in the steel mills of 
Pennsylvania, the tobacco fields of Connecticut, the packing 
houses, foundries and automobile plants of the Northwest, found 
it imperative to seek for labor in home fields. The Department 
of Labor, in the effort to relieve this shortage, through its em- 
ployment service, at first assisted the migration northward. It 
later withdrew its assistance when its attention was called to the 
growing magnitude of the movement and its possible effect 
on the South. 

Deserted by the Department of Labor, certain northern em- 
ployers undertook to translate their desires into action in 1915, 
when the anxieties of the New England tobacco planters were 
felt in the New York labor market. These planters at first rushed 
to New York and promiscuously gathered up 200 girls of the 
worst type, who straightway proceeded to demoralize Hart- 
ford. The blunder was speedily detected and the employers 
came back to New York, seeking some agency which might 



54 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

assist them in the solution of their problem. Importuned for 
help, the National League on Urban Conditions among Negroes 
supplied these planters with respectable southern blacks who 
met this unusual demand for labor in Connecticut. Later, more- 
over, it appeared that on the threshold of an unusually promis- 
ing year the Poles, Lithuanians and Czechs, formerly employed 
in the fields, were dwindling in number and there was not at 
hand the usual supply from which their workers were recruited. 
A large number of these foreigners had been called back to their 
fatherland to engage in the World War. 

In January of 1916, therefore, the tobacco growers of Con- 
necticut met in conference to give this question serious consider- 
ation. Mr. Floyd, the Manager of the Continental Tobacco Cor- 
poration, offered a solution for this difficult problem through 
the further importation of negro labor. The response to this 
suggestion was not immediate, because New England had never 
had large experience with negro labor. An intense interest in 
the experiment, -however, was aroused through a number of 
men with connections in the South. It was decided that the 
National League on Urban Conditions among Negroes, with 
headquarters in New York City, should further assist in secur- 
ing laborers. Because of the seasonal character of the work, 
an effort was made to get students from the southern schools 
by advancing transportation. The New York News, a negro 
weekly, says of this conference : 

Thus was born, right in the heart of Yankee Land, the first significant 
move to supplant foreign labor with native labor, a step which has resulted 
in one of the biggest upheavals in the North incident to the European war, 
which has already been a boon to the colored American, improving his 
economic status and putting thousands of dollars into his pockets.^ 

The employers of the North felt justified in bringing about a 
more equitable distribution of the available labor supply in 
America. Discussing the labor situation before a conference 
in New York, Mr. E. J. Traily, Jr., of the Erie Railroad said: 

The Erie Railroad has employed a large number of the negro migrants 
and we are still in need of more because of the abnormal state of labor 

1 The New York Nezvs. 



THE CALL OF THE SELF-SUFFICIENT NORTH 55 

conditions in this part of the country. It is altogether unfair that the 
southern States should enforce laws prohibiting the moving of labor from 
their borders; when there are railroads all over this country that would 
pay good wages to these laborers. I know of one railroad company last 
year, which never had a colored man in the service, that was offering large 
wages and scouring every place for colored help. At the same -time the 
South had and still has a surplus of colored labor and would not permit 
it to be moved. These conditions actually exist, and I know it. I am 
interested in this thing not alone from the personal side of it, but due to 
the fact of my association with the Erie Railroad. I believe that the 

■ best thing that this body can do, in my judgment, is to pass resolutions 
demanding that the United States Emigration Bureau carry out the act 
passed by Congress empowering the Labor Department to place unoccupied 

- men of other parts of the country where labor is needed. ^ 

y" Early in the summer of 1916, the Pennsylvania and Erie 
Railroads promiscuously picked up trainloads of negroes from 
Jacksonville, St. Augustine and Pensacola, Florida. They were 
at first grouped in camps. The promise of a long free ride 
to the North met with instant favor, and wild excitement en- 
sued as the news circulated. Carloads of negroes began to pour 
into Pennsylvania. When they had once touched northern soil 
and discovered that still higher wages were being offered by 
other concerns, many deserted the companies responsible for 
their presence in the North. Some drifted to the steel works 
of the same State; others left for points nearby. Letters written 
home brought news of still more enticing fields, and succeeded 
in stimulating the movement. Of the 12,000 negroes brought 
into Pennsylvania by the Pennsylvania Railroad, less than 2,000 
remained with the company." 

It will no doubt be interesting to know exactly where these 
negroes settled in the North, For the purpose of understanding 
this distribution the North may well be divided according to 
the two main lines followed by the migrants in leaving the 
South. The South and middle Atlantic States sent the majority 
of their migrants directly up the Atlantic coast while the south 
central States fed the Northwest. There is, of course, no hard 
line of separation for these two streams. Laborers were sought 

1 New York Age, January 30, 1917 ; Christian Recorder, Philadelphia, Feb- 
ruary 2, 1917. 

2 Ibid. 



56 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

in fields most accessible to the centers of industry, but individual 
choice as displayed in the extent of voluntary migration carried 
them everywhere. 

The New England States, which were probably the first to 
attract this labor, were Connecticut and Massachusetts. The 
tobacco fields of Connecticut with Hartford as a center received 
the first negro laborers as mentioned above. Before a year 
had passed there were over 3,000 southern negroes in the city 
of Hartford. Massachusetts had its new war plants which 
served as an attraction. Holyoke received considerable adver- 
tisement through the National League on Urban Conditions 
among Negroes, and as a result secured a number directly 
from the South. Boston, which has always stood as a symbol 
of hope for those who sought relief from southern conditions, 
has not, however, at any time afforded any great variety of occu- 
pations for the peasant class of negroes. The receptions staged 
by the negro leaders of that city were stimulated apparently 
more by the sentimental causes of the movement than any other 
consideration. Although there existed in Boston the type of 
industries which required great numbers of men, barriers pre- 
vented negroes in large numbers from entering them and as 
a result there was no great influx of migrants from the South. 

The places mentioned above are, of course, only those which 
received large numbers. Scattered all over this section of the 
country were thousands of individuals who, seeking more profit- 
able employment, broke loose from the crowd congregating at 
favorite points. New York State with New York City as its 
center has received a considerable number. New York City, 
however, has been principally a rerouting point. In fact, many 
of those who subsequently went to New England first went to 
New York City. The State of New York recruited its labor 
here. There came to New York probably no less than 75,000 
negroes, a large portion of whom stopped in New York City, 
although Albany, Poughkeepsie, Buffalo and smaller cities re- 
ceived their share. 

New Jersey, because of the great number of its industrial 
plants, was rapidly filled. Newark alone augmented its colored 



THE CALL OF THE SELF-SUFFICIENT NORTH 57 

population within a little over a year by one hundred per cent. 
The attractions in this State were the munitions plants, brick 
yards and wire factories. The principal cities here that might 
be mentioned are Newark, Trenton and Jersey City, although 
the migration to the last two cities hardly compares in volume 
to that of Newark. Delaware, bordering New Jersey, received 
a few.^ Washington, the Capital City and the gateway to the 
North, already containing the largest negro population of any 
city in the country was in the path of the migration and had 
its increase of population accelerated by the war. A considerable 
number of southern negroes found work there, principally in 
domestic service. Pennsylvania, the first northern State to 
begin ivholesale importation of labor from the South, is the 
seat of the country's largest steel plants and is the terminal of 
three of the country's greatest railroad systems. Pittsburgh 
received perhaps the largest number; Philadelphia and Harris- 
burg followed in order. The numerous little industrial centers 
dotting the State fed from the supply furnished by the railroads.^ 

The migration to the Northwest was more extensive. Ohio, 
the State of vital historical association for negroes, was gener- 
ously visited. Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Akron and 
Youngstown were popular centers. The coal mines, factories 
and iron works were most in need of men, and obtained them 
without any great difficulty. Indiana, still probably remembered 
as the delicate spot in the inquiry following a similar migration 
thirty-nine years ago, with its very highly developed industries 
caught the flood proceeding up the Mississippi valley. Indianap- 
olis was a popular point although not a satisfactory one for 
the migrants, who pretty generally left it for better fields. Gary 
and Indiana Harbor, more properly satellite cities of Chicago, 
developed an almost entirely new negro population. 

Missouri, a border State, has one city with a considerably 
augmented negro population. The size of the new population 
of St. Louis can be accounted for by the fact that geographically 
it is the first city of the North. East St. Louis, recently made 

1 Fortune, Report on Negro Migration to the East. 

2 Ibid. 



58 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

notorious by the reception which it accorded its newcomers, is 
surrounded by a number of satellite towns, all of which made 
bids for labor from the South and received it. Not a few 
negro laborers went to Kansas City from which many were re- 
routed to other points. Nebraska received a large number of 
migrants as a direct result of self-advertisement. Omaha was 
the city which invited them and received the bulk of immigra- 
tion to that State. 

Illinois, the one State known throughout the South because 
of Chicago, received probably the heaviest quota of any. Located 
as it is in the center of industry for the Middle West and known 
to negroes as a " fair " State, it received through Chicago as 
many at least as the entire State of Pennsylvania. Chicago is 
the center of a cluster of industrial towns. It has served as a 
point of distribution through its numerous employment agencies 
for the territory northwest and northeast. Michigan has one 
large city, Detroit, which has recently increased its population 
one hundred per cent because of its number of highly developed 
industries which have supplied employment for its rapidly in- 
creasing population.^ 

The eastern cities which made efforts through various means 
to augment their labor supply were Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, 
Newark, New York City and Hartford. It is manifestly im- 
possible to get reliable figures on the volume of increase in the 
negro population of any of these cities. All that is available 
is in the form of estimates which can not be too confidently 
relied upon. Estimates based on the average number of arrivals 
from the South per day, the increase in the school population 
and the opinions of social agencies which have engaged them- 
selves in adjusting the newcomers to their new homes appear 
to agree in the main. 

1 These estimates are based upon the reports of investigators sent to make 
a study of the condition of the mi2;rants. 



CHAPTER VI 
The Draining of the Black Belt 

In order better to understand the migration movement, a 
special study of it was made for five adjoining States, Georgia, 
Florida, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana, from which came 
more than half of all migrants. The negro population of these 
five States was 4,115,299, which was almost half of the negro 
population of the South. In the particular sections of these 
States where the migration was the heaviest, the one crop sys- 
tem, cotton, was general. As a result of the cotton price demor- 
alization resulting from the war, the labor depression, the rav- 
ages of the cotton boll weevil, and in some regions unusual 
floods, as already stated, there was in this section of the South 
an exceptionally large amount of surplus labor. The several 
trunk line railroads directly connecting this section with the 
northern industrial centers made the transportation of this labor 
an easy matter. 

In 1915, the labor depression in Georgia was critical and 
work at remunerative wages was scarce. In Atlanta strong 
pressure was brought to bear to have the negroes employed in 
cleaning the streets replaced by whites who were out of work. 
It was reported that the organized charities of Macon, in dealing 
with the question of the unemployed, urged whites employing 
negroes to discharge the blacks and hire whites. Mr. Bridges 
Smith, the mayor of the city, bitterly opposed this suggestion. 
When the 1915 cotton crop began to ripen it was proposed to 
compel the unemployed negroes in the towns to go to the fields 
and pick cotton. Commenting editorially on this, the Atlanta 
Constitution said : 

The problem of the unemployed in Albany, Georgia, is being dealt with 
practically. All negroes who have not regular employment are offered 
it in the cotton fields, the immense crop requiring more labor than the 

59 



60 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

plantations ordinarily have. If the unemployed refuse the opportunity, the 
order " move on " and out of the community is given by the chief of police, 
and the order must be obeyed. Though the government is taking up very 
systematically the problem of the unemployed, its solving will be slow, and 
the government aid for a long time will have to be supplementary to work 
in this direction, initiated in communities, municipalities and States, where 
the problem of the unemployed is usually complex.^ 

In the course of time, when the negroes did leave, they 
departed in such large numbers that their going caused alarm. 
Because they left at night the number of negroes going north 
from the immediate vicinity was not generally realized. One 
night nearly fifty of Tifton boarded northbound passenger trains, 
which already carried, it is said, some three hundred negroes. 
Labor agents had been very active in that section all fall, but 
so cleverly had they done their work that officers had not been 
able to get a line on them. For several weeks, the daily exodus, 
it is said, had ranged from ten to twenty-five.^ 

Columbus was an assembling point for migrants going from 
east Alabama and west Georgia. Railroq^d tickets would be 
bought from local stations to Columbus, and there the tickets 
or transportation for the North, mainly to Chicago, would be 
secured. Americus was in many respects similarly affected, 
having had many of its important industries thereby paralyzed, 
Albany, a railroad center, became another assembling point for 
migrants from another area. Although difficulties would be 
experienced in leaving the smaller places directly for the North, 
it was easy to purchase a ticket to Albany and later depart from 
that town. The result was that Albany was the point of de- 
parture for several thousand negroes, of whom a very large 
percentage did not come from the towns or Dougherty county 
in which Albany is situated.^ 

^Atlanta Constitution, August 28, 1915. 

2 Ibid., December 13, 1916. _ 

3 A leading colored physician of Albany in commenting on the exodus 
said : " A considerable number went from town and county. The number 
was not near so great, however, as from other counties." He was of the 
opinion that not more than eight or ten families had left. He said that his 
practice had not been affected. Individuals came in from other sections 
and took the place of those who went away. He was of the opinion that 
the fever was about over. This was due to the shortage of labor created 
by the draft, the increase in wages and better treatment, particularly the 



THE DRAINING OF THE BLACK BELT 61 

A negro minister, well acquainted with the situation in south- 
west Georgia, was of the opinion that the greatest number had 
gone from Thomas and Mitchell counties and the towns of 
Pelham and Thomas ville. Valdosta, with a population of about 
8,000 equally divided between the races became a clearing house 
for many migrants from southern Georgia. The pastor of one 
of the leading churches said that he lost twenty per cent of his 
members. The industrial insurance companies reported a twenty 
per cent loss in membership.^ Waycross," a railroad center in 

latter. Tenants on plantations were receiving better treatment than they 
formerly received. Some plantation owners as an inducement to their 
tenants were furnishing each with a cow and a sow. Farm labor which was 
formerly paid $8 to $12 per month, now received from $20 to $30 per month. 
He said he knew of one plantation owner who was paying his hands $1.25 
per day. This doctor said he was reliably informed that many negroes had 
left Lee and Calhoun counties and the whites had to go in the fields and 
plow. As a result of the exodus, the white and colored men of Albany 
had got closer together. He had recently been elected a member of the 
Albany Chamber of Commerce, and he understood that about twelve colored 
men had been invited to become members of the Chamber to assist in 
working for the development of the county. 

One of the colored druggists in Georgia said that Albany was a central 
point, and that a great many came from Cuthbert, Arlington, Leary and 
Calhoun, Early and Miller counties to Albany as a starting point for the 
North. Many went from Albany to Chicago and Philadelphia, but he was 
of the opinion that the largest number had gone to New Jersey. Migration 
has been affected by the draft and new opportunities opening up in the 
South. He said that whites became alarmed and called a meeting and 
invited some colored persons to consult with them. — Work, Report on 
Migration from Georgia. 

1 " The migration of negroes from this city to the North set in agam 
this week, after a comparative lull of two months. A party of twelve left 
here yesterday for Jersey City, while twenty others are expected to leave 
shortly. IManv women a-e going with the men, in some cases leaving their 
children. Stories of suffering from cold, brought back by negroes durmg 
this winter, checked the movement considerably. Several hundred negroes 
will leave here this spring."— .-J //an/o Constitution, March 26, 1917. 

- A report from there, in the Savannah Morning News, of December 3, 
1916, said: "Hundreds of negroes in this section recently have been fleeced 
by white men posing as agents of large employment bureaus and mdustrial 
companies in the eastern States. The most recent instance of the easy 
marks is reported from Coffee county, but it is in line with what has been 
happening in other counties. The so-called agent collects a registration fee, 
giving in return for the money, usually one or two dollars, a card which is 
said to entitle the bearer to a position at such and such a plant. The negroes 
get on the train on the date specified, the agent meeting them at the station. 
He tells them he will have a party ticket for the entire number and to tell 
the conductor to collect their fares from him. The negroes of course leave 
home for the point where they think they will be given work, and apparently 
are a happy lot. But when ticket collecting time comes there is another 

story to tell. i . . • «. 

" Thirty-seven negroes the other day boarded a northbound tram at 

Douglas for Pittsburgh, The agent was on hand to check each one and 



62 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

the wire grass section of the State, with a population of V,700 
whites and 6,700 negroes, suffered gready from the migration. 
Hundreds of negroes in this section were induced by the em- 
ployment bureaus and industrial companies in eastern States 
to abandon their homes. From Brunswick, one of the two prin- 
cipal seaports in Georgia, went 1,000 negroes, the chief occu- 
pation of whom was stevedoring. Savannah, another important 
seaport on the south Atlantic coast, with a population of about 
TO, 000, saw the migration attain unusually large proportions, 
so as to cause almost a panic and to lead to drastic measures 
to check it. 

The migration was from all sections of Florida. The heaviest 
movements were from west Florida, from Tampa and Jackson- 
ville. Capitola early reported that a considerable number of 
negroes left that vicinity, some going north, a few to Jack- 
sonville and others to south Florida to work on the truck farms 
and in the phosphate mines. A large number of them migrated 
from Tallahassee to Connecticut to work in the tobacco fields. 
Owing to the depredations of the boll weevil, many others went 
north. Most of the migration in west Florida, however, was 
rural as there are very few large towns in that section. Yet, 
although they had no such assembling points as there were in 
other parts of the South, about thirty or thirty-five per cent 
of the labor left. In north central Florida near Apalachicola 
fifteen or twenty per cent of the labor left. In middle Florida 
around Ocala and Gainesville probably twenty to twenty-five 
per cent of the laborers left, chiefly because of the low wages. 
The stretch of territory between Pensacola and Jacksonville was 
said to be one of the most neglected sections in the South, the 
migration being largely of farm tenants with a considerable 
number of farm owners. There were cases of the migration 
of a whole community including the pastor of the church.^ 

then he got aboard, or so the negroes thought. A few miles from Douglas 
the conductor found he had thirty-seven ticketless passengers And none 
of the negroes had the money to pay the fare to Pittsburgh. The train was 
stopped, and the negroes returned home, wiser and vowing they were ' done 
with leaving home.' Quite a number of negroes have come to Waycross to 
meet agents and go north. Before coming here the negroes of course had 
contributed." 
1 Work, Report on the Migration from Florida. 



THE DRAINING OF THE BLACK BELT 63 

Live Oak, a small town in Sewanee county, experienced the 
same upheaval, losing a large proportion of its colored popula- 
tion. Dunnelon, a small town in the southern part of Marion 
county, soon found itself in the same situation. Lakeland, in 
Polk county, lost about one-third of its negroes. Not less than 
one-fourth of the black population of Orlando was swept into 
this movement. Probably half of the negroes of Palatka, Miami 
and De Land, migrated as indicated by schools and churches, 
the membership of w^iich decreased one-half. From 3,000 to 
5,000 negroes migrated from Tampa and Hillsboro county. 
Jacksonville, the largest city in Florida, with a population of 
about 35,000 negroes, lost about 6,000 or 8,000 of its own black 
population and served as an assembling point for 14,000 or 
15,000 others who went to the North.^ 

By September, 1916, the movement in Alabama was well 
under way. In Selma there was made the complaint that a new 
scheme was being used to entice negroes away. Instead of ad- 
vertising in Alabama papers, the schemes of the labor agents 
were proclaimed through papers published in other States and 
circulated in Alabama. As a result there was a steady migration 
of negroes from Alabama to the North and to points in Tennes- 
see and Arkansas where conditions were more inviting and 
wages higher. Estimates appear to indicate, however, that Ala- 
bama, through the migration, lost a larger proportion of her 
negro population than did any one of the other southern 
States.- 

From Eufaula in the eastern part of the State it was re- 
ported in September that trains leaving there on Sundays in 
1916 were packed with negroes going north, that hundreds left, 
joining crowds from Clayton, Clio and Ozark. There seemed 
to be a " free ride " every Sunday and many w^ere giving up 
lucrative positions there to go. The majority of these negroes, 
however, went from the country where they had had a dis- 
astrous experience with the crops of the year 1916 on account 
of the July floods.^ By October the exodus from Dallas county 

1 Work, Report on the Migration from Florida. 

2 Work, Report on the Migration from Alabama. 
^Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser, September 27, 1916. 



64 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

had reached such alarming proportions that farmers and business 
men were devising means to stop it. 

Bullock county, with a working population of 15,000 negroes, 
lost about one-third and in addition about 1,500 non-workers. 
The reports of churches as to the loss of membership at certain 
points justify this conclusion. Hardly any of the churches 
escaped without a serious loss and the percentage in most cases 
was from twenty-five to seventy per cent.^ It seemed that these 
intolerable conditions did not obtain in Union Springs. Ac- 
cording to persons living in Kingston, the wealthiest and the 
most prosperous negroes of the district migrated. In October, 
1916, some of the first large groups left Mobile, Alabama, for 
the Northwest. The report says: "Two trainloads of negroes 
were sent over the Louisville and Nashville Railroad to work 
in the railroad yards and on the tracks in the West, Thousands 
more are expected to leave during the next month." 

As soon as the exodus got well under way, Birmingham be- 
came one of the chief assembling points in the South for the 
migrants and was one of the chief stations on the way north. 
Thousands came from the flood and boll weevil districts to 
Birmingham. The records of the negro industrial insurance 
companies showed the effects of the migration both from and 
to Birmingham. The Atlanta Mutual Insurance Company lost 
500 of its members and added 2,000, Its debit for November, 
1916, was $502.25; for November, 1917, it was $740, The 
business of the Union Central Relief Association was greatly 
affected by the migration. The company in 1916 lost heavily. 
In 1917 it cleared some money. 

The State of Mississippi, with a larger percentage of negroes 
than any other State in the Union, naturally lost a large num- 
ber of its working population. There has been in progress 

1 The investigator had been in Union Springs on a Saturday before there 
was a migration. The crowds on the streets were so great that it was difificult 
for one to pass. On Saturday, November 17, 1917, the investigator was 
again in Union Springs. It was an ideal autumn day. Good crops had been 
made in the county. Especially high prices were being paid for all sorts of 
farm produce. The market season was on. Court was in session. The 
streets, however, had about the crowds to be found on some days, other 
than Saturday, before the migration began. 



THE DRAINING OF THE BLACK BELT 65 

for a number of years a movement from the hill counties of the 
State of Mississippi to the Delta, and from the Delta to Arkan- 
sas. The interstate migration has resulted from the land poverty 
of the hill country and from intimidation of the " poor whites " 
particularly in Amite, Lincoln, Franklin and Wilkinson counties. 
In 1908 when the floods and boll weevil worked such general 
havoc in the southwestern corner of the State, labor agents 
from the Delta went down and carried away thousands of fam- 
ilies. It is estimated that more than 8,000 negroes left Adams 
county during the first two years of the boll weevil period. 
Census figures for 1910 show that the southwestern counties 
suffered a loss of 18,000 negroes. The migration of recent 
years to adjacent States has been principally to Arkansas.^ 

Jackson, the capital of Mississippi, seriously felt the migra- 
tion. The majority of the " lower middle class " of negroes, 
twenty-five per cent of the business men and fully one-third of 
the professional men left the city — in all between 2,000 and 
5,000. Two of the largest churches lost their pastors and about 
200 of each of their memberships. Other churches suffered a 
decrease of forty per cent in their communicants. Two-thirds 
of the remaining families in Jackson are part families with rel- 
atives who have recently migrated to the North, 

For years the negroes of Greenville have been unsettled and 
dissatisfied to the extent of leaving. Negroes came from Leland 
to Greenville to start for the North. This condition has ob- 
tained there ever since the World's Fair in Chicago, when 
families first learned to go to that section whenever oppor- 
tunities for establishment were offered them. Although the 
negroes from Greenville are usually prosperous, during this 
exodus they have mortgaged their property or placed it in the 
hands of friends on leaving for the North. Statistics indicate 

^ The reasons back of this, as obtained from migrants themselves, are 
that, except in the town of Mound Bayou, negroes have not been encouraged 
to own property or rent, but to work on shares; in Arkansas it is possible 
to buy good land cheaply and on reasonable terms; inducements are offered 
by Arkansas in the form of better treatment and schools ; there are no such 
"excessive" taxes as are required in the Mississippi Delta to protect them 
from the overflows; the boll weevil has not yet seriously affected that 
State, and a small farmer may be fairly independent in Arkansas. 



66 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

that in the early part of the movement at least 1,000 left the 
immediate vicinity of Greenville and since that time others have 
continued to go in large numbers/ 

Greenwood, with a population evenly balanced between the 
white and black, had passed through the unusual crisis of bad 
crops and the invasion of the boll weevil. The migration from 
this point, therefore, was at first a relief to the city rather than 
a loss. The negroes, in the beginning, therefore, moved into 
the Delta and out to Arkansas until the call for laborers in the 
North. The migration from this point to the North reached 
its height in the winter and spring of 1916 and 1917. The 
migrants would say that they were going to Memphis, but when 
you next heard from them they would be in Chicago, St. Louis 
or Detroit./ The police at the Illinois Central depot had been 
handling men roughly. When they were rude to one, ten or 
twelve left. Young men usually left on night trains. Next day 
their friends would say, "Ten left last night," or, " Twelve left 
last night." In this manner the stream started. Friends would 
notify others of the time and place of special trains. The type 
of negro leaving is indicated in the decline in the church mem- 
bership. ''Over 300 of those who left were actively connected 
with some church. During the summer of 1917, 100 houses 

1 The lumber mills and the local corporations provide a great part of 
the work for laborers in the city. Wages last year ranged from $1.25 to 
$1.50 a day. Wages at present are $1.75 and $2 a day. Cotton picking last 
year brought 60 and 75 cents a hundred; at present $2 is paid for every 
hundred pounds picked. The city has enacted " move on " faw^s intending 
to get rid of drones. The police, it is said, could not distinguish drones 
from " all negroes." 

It was further complained that the police deputies and sheriffs are too 
free with the use of their clubs and guns when a negro is mvolved. It 

was related that Dr. , practising 47 years in Greenville, Mississippi, was 

driving his buggy in a crowded street on circus day when he was com- 
manded by a policeman to drive to one side and let a man pass. He replied 
that he could not because he himself was jammed. He was commanded 
again and then dragged from the buggy, clubbed and haled into the police 
court and fined. The officer who arrested him swore that he had given 
frequent trouble, which was untrue according to reliable testimony and his 
own statement. This incident is also told : 

A policeman's friend needed a cook. The policeman drove by a negro 
home and, seeing a woman on the porch, told her to get in the buggy. No 
questions were permitted. She was carried to his friend's home and told 
to work. The woman prepared one meal and left the city for the North. — 
Johnson. Report on the Migration from Mississippi. 



THE DRAINING OF THE BLACK BELT 67 

Stood vacant in the town and over 300 were abandoned in the 
McShein addition. As the crops were gathered people moved 
in from the country, from the southern part of the State and 
from the "hills " generally to take the places of those who had 
left for the North. 

There was no concerted movement from Clarksdale, a town 
with a population of about 400 whites and 600 blacks ; but 
families appeared to slip away because of the restlessness and 
uneasiness in evidence everywhere. From the rural district 
around there was considerable migration to Arkansas, but con- 
siderable numbers were influenced to leave for Buffalo and 
Chicago. Mound Bayou lost some of its population also to 
Arkansas and the North, as they could buy land cheaper in 
the former and find more lucrative employment in the latter. 
Natchez did not suffer a serious loss of population until the 
invasion of the boll weevil and the floods. 

Hattiesburg, a large lumber center, was at the beginning of 
the exodus, almost depopulated. Some of the first migrants 
went to Pennsylvania but the larger number went to Chicago. 
It became a rallying point for many negroes who assembled 
there ostensibly to go to New Orleans, at which place they 
easily provided for their transportation to Chicago and other 
points in the North/ From Laurel in Jones county, a large 
sawmill district, it is estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 
negroes moved north. About 3,000 left JMeridian for Chicago, 
St. Louis, Detroit and Pittsburgh. Indianola, a town with a num- 
ber of negro independent enterprises, also became upset by this 
movement, losing a considerable number of progressive families. 
Gulf port, a coast town a short distance from New Orleans, lost 
about one-third of its negro population. About 45 families 
left Bobo for Arkansas, and 15 families went to the North. 
Johnstown, ]\Iississippi, lost 150 of its 400 negroes.^ 

The ow^ners of turpentine industries and lumber plants in 
southeastern Mississippi were especially affected by the exodus. 
Li Hinds, Copiah, Lincoln, Rankin, Newton and Lake counties, 
many white residents rather than suffer their crops to be lost, 

^ Johnson, Report on the Migration from Mississippi. 



68 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

worked in the fields. It was reported that numbers of these 
whites were leaving for the Delta and for Kentucky, Tennessee 
and Arkansas. Firms there attempted to look in the North 
that they might send for the negroes whom they had pre- 
viously employed, promising them an advance in wages. 

At the same time the Illinois Central Railroad was carrying 
from New Orleans and other parts of Louisiana thousands into 
Indiana, Illinois and Michigan. At the Illinois Central Railroad 
station in that city, the agent had been having his hands full 
taking names of colored laborers wanting and waiting to go 
North. About the first of April, 1917, there came also the 
reports from New Orleans that 300 negro laborers left there 
on the Southern Pacific steamer for New York, and 500 more 
left later on another of the same company's steamships bound 
also for New York, it was said, to work for the company. 
Thousands thus left for the North and West and East, the 
number reaching over 1,200. 

It is an interesting fact that this migration from the South 
followed the path marked out by the Underground Railroad 
of antebellum days. Negroes from the rural districts moved 
first to the nearest village or town, then to the city. On the 
plantations it was not regarded safe to arrange for transporta- 
tion to the North through receiving and sending letters. On 
the other hand, in the towns and cities there was more security 
in meeting labor agents. The result of it was that cities like 
New Orleans, Birmingham, Jacksonville, Savannah and Mem- 
phis became concentration points. From these cities migrants 
were rerouted along the lines most in favor. 

The principal difference between this course and the Under- 
ground Railroad was that in the later movement the southern- 
most States contributed the largest numbers. This perhaps is 
due in part to the selection of Florida and Georgia by the first 
concerns offering the inducement of free transportation, and 
at the same time it accounts for the very general and intimate 
knowledge of the movement by the people in States through 
which they were forced to pass. In Hattiesburg, Mississippi, 
for example, the first intimation of a great movement of negroes 



THE DRAINING OF THE BLACK BELT 69 

to the North came through reports that thousands of negroes 
were leaving Florida for the North. To the negroes of Florida, 
South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia the North means Penn- 
sylvania, New Jersey, New York and New England. The route 
is more direct, and it is this section of the northern expanse 
of the United States that gets widest advertisement through 
tourists, and passengers and porters on the Atlantic coast 
steamers. The northern newspapers with the greatest circula- 
tion are from Pennsylvania and New York, and the New York 
colored weeklies are widely read. Reports from all of these 
south Atlantic States indicate that comparatively few persons 
ventured into the Northwest when a better known country lay 
before them. 

The Pennsylvania Railroad, one of the first to import laborers 
in large numbers, reports that of the 12,000 persons brought 
to Pennsylvania over its road, all but 2,000 were from Florida 
and Georgia. The tendency was to continue along the first 
definite path. Each member of the vanguard controlled a small 
group of friends at home, if only the members of his immediate 
family. Letters sent back, representing that section of the North 
and giving directions concerning the route best known, easily 
influenced the next groups to join their friends rather than 
explore new fields. In fact, it is evident throughout the move- 
ment that the most congested points in the North when the 
migration reached its height, were those favorite cities to which 
the first group had gone.^ An intensive study of a group of 77 
families from the South, selected at random in Chicago, showed 
but one family from Florida and no representation at all from 
North and South Carolina. A tabulation of figures and facts 
from 500 applications for work by the Chicago League on 
Urban Conditions among Negroes gives but a few persons 
from North Carolina, twelve from South Carolina and one 
from Virginia. The largest number, 102, came from Georgia. 
Applicants for work in New York from the south Atlantic 
States are overwhelming." 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration from Mississippi. 

2 Ibid. 



70 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

For the east and west south central States, the Northwest 
was more accessible and better known, St. Louis and Cin- 
cinnati are the nearest northern cities to the South and excur- 
sions have frequently been run there from New Orleans, through 
the State of Mississippi. There are in St. Louis, as in other 
more northern cities, little communities of negroes from the 
different sections of the South. The mail order and clothing 
houses of Chicago have advertised this city throughout the 
South. The convenience of transportation makes the Northwest 
a popular destination for migrants from Mississippi, Alabama, 
Louisiana, Texas and Tennessee. The Illinois Central Railroad 
runs directly to New Orleans through Tennessee and Mississippi. 

There were other incidental factors which determined the 
course of the movement. Free trains from different sections 
broke new paths by overcoming the obstacles of funds for trans- 
portation. No questions were asked of the passengers, and, in 
some instances, as many as were disposed to leave were carried. 
When once they had advanced beyond the Mason and Dixon 
line, many fearing that fees for transportation would be de- 
ducted from subsequent pay, if they were in the employ of 
the parties who, as they understood, were advancing their fares, 
deserted the train at almost any point that looked attractive. 
Employment could be easily secured and at good wages. Many 
of these unexpected and premature destinations became the 
nucleuses for small colonies whose growth was stimulated and 
assisted by the United States postal service. , 



CHAPTER VII 
Efforts to Check the Movement 

The departure of the first negroes usually elicited no concern 
from the authorities. It was assumed that their actions were 
merely expressions of the negro's " love for travel," and that 
they would soon return. When, however, they did not return 
and hosts of others followed, the white South became deeply 
concerned and endeavored to check the movement. Throughout 
the exodus drastic legislation and force were employed. In 
Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi and Georgia laws were passed 
in an effort to suppress the activities of labor agents. Licenses 
were made prohibitively high; labor agents were arrested and 
heavily fined. In some cases their coming was penalized to 
prohibit their operations entirely and they frequently suffered 
physical injury. 

In Florida labor recruiting early assumed a serious aspect. 
Precaution was, therefore, taken to impede the progress of the 
work of labor agents among negroes, at first by moral suasion 
and then by actual force. The cities and towns of this State 
enacted measures requiring a very high license of labor agents, 
imposing in case of failure to comply with these regulations, a 
penalty of imprisonment. For example, in Tampa when these 
operations were brought to the attention of the authorities, 
Joe Robinson, a negro officer, was detailed to investigate the 
matter. He discovered that one Joyce and another negro named 
Alex Reeves were implicated in the movement. These men 
were charged with having collected $7 from each of several 
hundred negroes who wanted to go to Pennsylvania. A meet- 
ing among the negroes of Tampa was then held to secure pledges 
of assistance for the negro officer, then making an effort to 
prevent the exodus. Being under the impression that the. ig- 
norant members of their race were being imposed upon by 

12 



EFFORTS TO CHECK THE MOVEMENT Y3 

agents from without, many of these leading negroes pledged 
themselves to assist in the suppression of it/ 

In Jacksonville, where the labor agents flourished, the City 
Council passed an ordinance requiring that migration agents 
should pay $1,000 license to recruit labor sent out of the State 
under penalty of $G00 fine and GO days in jail. Several police 
detectives were assigned the task of arresting those who were 
said to be spreading false reports among negroes there to the 
effect that special trains were ready on various specified dates 
to take them to points in the North. When, therefore, large 
crowds of negroes gathered near the Union Depot in Jack- 
sonville, awaiting the so-called special train, they were handled 
rather roughly by the police when it was shown that they had 
not purchased tickets and there was no one to vouch for their 
transportation. 

The same condition with respect to the apparent necessity 
for prohibitive measures obtained in Georgia. The local gov- 
ernments early took action to prevent the drain of the labor 
population to northern States through the operation of labor 
agents. It was soon observed, however, that these agents worked 
out their schemes so clandestinely that it was impossible to 
check the movement by such measures. Fearing that the general 
unrest among the negroes of the city and the efforts that were 
being put forth on the part of the authorities to keep them 
from being transported from Macon to the North, might result 
in a riot with which the city authorities would not be able 
to cope, Chief of Police George S. Riley recommended to the 
civil service commission that forty magazine rifles be purchased 
for the police department.^ At that time the police had only 
their pistols and clubs. It was said that surliness then existed 
among certain negroes and the police wanted to be able to cope 
with any situation that might arise. The City Council, there- 
after, raised the license fee for labor agents to $25,000, requir- 
ing also that such an agent be recommended by ten local min- 
isters, ten manufacturers and twenty-five business men. The 

1 Work, Report on the Migration from Florida. 

2 Atlantic Constitution, November 1, 1916. 



74 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

police of Macon were very active in running down labor agents 
violating this law. 

Americus was honeycombed and carefully watched and 
searched for persons inducing negroes to migrate, as there was 
a large exodus of negroes from this city to the tobacco fields 
of Connecticut. Negroes attempting to leave were arrested and 
held to see if by legal measures they could be deterred from 
going North. The officers in charge of this raid were armed 
with State warrants charging misdemeanors and assisted by a 
formidable array of policemen and deputy sheriffs. Negroes 
were roughly taken from the trains and crowded into the prisons 
to await trial for these so-called misdemeanors. Although the 
majority of them were set free after their trains had left the 
city, the leaders in most cases suffered humiliation at the hands 
of the officers of the law.^ 

At Thomasville, a white man and a negro were arrested, 
charged with the usual crime of being labor agents. Much ex- 
citement followed. Fearing serious results, the colored ministers 
of this city endeavored to stop the exodus. A committee of 
their most prominent citizens met with the mayor and discussed 
the matter freely. They arranged for a large mass meeting of 
white and colored citizens who undertook to cooperate in bring- 
ing the exodus to an end. The white citizens of Waycross ex- 
perienced the same trouble with labor agents, but had much 
difficulty in finding out exactly who they were and how they 
contrived to make such inroads on the population.^ 

The situation became more critical in Savannah, one of the 
largest assembling points for migrants in the South. When the 
loss of labor became so serious and ordinary efforts to check 
it failed, more drastic measures were resorted to. On the thir- 
teenth of August, for example, when there spread through the 
city the rumor that two special trains would leave for the North, 
there followed great commotion among the negroes, who, already 
much disturbed by the agitation for and against the movement, 
were easily induced to start for the North. When, at about five 

1 Work, Report on the Migration from Georgia. 

2 Ibid. 



EFFORTS TO CHECK THE MOVEMENT 75 

o'clock that morning, 2,000 negroes assembled at the station 
for this purpose, the county police, augmented by a detachment 
of city officers, appeared at the station and attempted to clear 
the tracks; but the crowd being so large the officers finally found 
their task impossible, for as they would clear one section of the 
tracks the crowd would surge to another. The crowd was 
extremely orderly and good natured and the two arrests that 
were made were for minor offenses. As these trains failed to 
move according to orders, over 300 of this group paid their 
own fares and proceeded to the North. ^ 

A few days later Savannah reached a crisis in the labor move- 
ment agitation, when over 100 negroes were placed under arrest 
at the Union Depot and sent to the police barracks. Several 
patrol wagon loads of police arrived at the station and imme- 
diately a cordon was formed by the police around all negroes 
in the lobby and every exit from the station was guarded. By 
this unusual sight many persons were attracted to the station 
and excitement ran high. Many negroes were arrested with 
a view to finding out the leaders of the movement, but upon 
failure to discover the facts in the case the lieutenant in charge 
ordered the men in custody to be incarcerated on charges of 
loitering. 

To show how groundless these charges were, one need but 
to note the character of some of the persons arrested. Four 
carpenters from Lumpkin, Georgia, had just arrived and were 
waiting for a contractor for whom they had agreed to work a 
short distance from the city. Another young man entered the 
station to purchase a ticket to Burroughs, Georgia, to see rela- 
tives, but he was not only incarcerated but had to give a bond 
of $100 for his appearance nCxt morning. Another young man, 
working for the Pullman Company, entered the depot to cash 
a check for $11 when he was arrested, sent to jail and searched. 
Still another, a middle-aged man of most pleasing appearance, 
had just arrived from Jacksonville, Florida, and was waiting 
in the station until the time to proceed by boat that afternoon 
to New York. On one occasion, J. H. Butler, manager of the 

1 Work, Report on the Migration from Georgia. 



76 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

Savannah Tribune, a negro newspaper, was arrested charged 
with violation of the city and State law of sending labor out 
of the city. He was obliged to give bond of $400 to appear 
in court the next day. At the same time seventeen college boys 
who were waiting at a New York steamer dock were also appre- 
hended. The trial of the men before the recorder proved farcical, 
not a single one of the hundred or more prisoners being required 
to testify. After the chief of the detective force and several 
police lieutenants had testified, Recorder Schwartz ordered the 
men all released, but not before he had taken occasion to upbraid 
the police force for the unnecessarily large number of arrests.^ 

Alabama was equally alive to the need to suppress the migra- 
tion propaganda among negroes. To this end the Montgomery 
City Commission on September 19, 1916, passed an ordinance 
to the effect that any person who would entice, persuade or 
influence any laborer or other person to leave the city of Mont- 
gomery for the purpose of being employed at any other place 
as a laborer must on conviction be fined not less than one nor 
more than one hundred dollars, or may be sentenced to hard 
labor for the city, for not more than six months, one or both 
in the discretion of the court. The other ordinance provided 
that any person, firm or corporation who published, printed or 
wrote or delivered or distributed or posted or caused to be 
published, printed or written or delivered or distributed or 
posted, any advertisement, letter, newspaper, pamphlet, hand- 
bill or other writing, for the purpose of enticing, persuading 
or influencing any laborer or other person to leave the city of 
Montgomery for the purpose of being employed at any other 
place as a laborer must on conviction be fined not less than 
one hundred dollars, or may be sentenced to hard labor for 
the city for not more than six months, one or both in the dis- 
cretion of the court. Labor agents and other leaders both white 
and black were arrested throughout the State in accordance with 
the usual custom of preferring technical charges.^ 

The treatment of the movement in Mississippi was no ex- 

1 Work, Report on the Migration from Georgia. 

2 Work, Report on the Migration from Alabama. 



EFFORTS TO CHECK THE MOVEMENT 77 

ception to the rule. At Jackson, the " pass riders," as they were 
called, were so molested by the police that they were finally 
driven from the town. In the same town the citizens were 
reported to have forced the railroads to discontinue the use of 
passes on the threat of damaging their interests and influencing 
decisions in court cases. Negroes were secretly enticed away, 
however, after they had been dispersed from the railway sta- 
tions and imprisoned when in the act of boarding the trains. 
The police interfered at one time with negroes leaving, espe- 
cially when it was suspected that they were leaving on passes. 
To circumvent this, negroes would go two or three stations 
below Jackson where there were no policemen and board the 
trains. It was the unanimous opinion of whites and blacks 
who observed the almost frantic efforts to leave the town, that 
any attempt to hinder by intimidation or by making it diffiGult 
to leave, simply served to make them more determined to leave. ^ 

At Greenville, Mississippi, trains were stopped. Negroes were 
dragged therefrom and others were prevented from boarding 
them. Strangers were searched for evidence that might con- 
vict them as labor agents. It is also reported that local authori- 
ties were reprimanded for interfering with interstate commerce. 
At Greenwood there was much complaint against the brutality 
of the police, whose efforts to intimidate negroes carried them 
beyond bounds. A chartered car carrying fifty men and women 
was sidetracked at Brookhaven for three days. The man con- 
ducting the passengers was arrested, but when no charge was 
brought against him, he was released.^ 

A Hattiesburg, Mississippi, ticket agent attempted on the ad- 
vice of citizens to interfere with negroes leaving by refusing 
to sell tickets. Some one called the attention of the general 
superintendent to the matter. Thereafter the man was courteous 
and even assisted the migrants. Police arrested one or two men 
at the station, and, according to one of the men, made the 
crowd so angry that they swore they would not stop until all 
had gone. There are cited further instances of letters to plan- 

^ Johnson, Report on the Migration from Mississippi. 
2 Ibid. 



78 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

tation hands which were detained and telegrams which were 
delayed. At Meridian, Mississippi, a trainload of negroes en 
route to the North was held up by the chief of police on a 
technical charge. It is said that the United States marshal 
arrested him and placed him under heavy bond for delaying the 
train. The federal authorities were importuned to stop the 
movement. They withdrew the assistance of the Employment 
Department, but admitted that they could not stop the interstate 
migration/ 

One remarked, however, *' It will scarcely be possible, to make 
a sectional issue of these Columbus convictions, as the charge 
of ' enticing away of labor ' in that country is aimed at certain 
Arkansas planters who carried away several carloads of negroes 
to work on their places, leaving the Mississippi employers with- 
out the labor to gather or grow their crops. It can not, there- 
fore, be interpreted as an attempt to keep the negro in semi- 
slavery in the South and prevent him from going to work at 
better wages in the northern munition factories; it is only an 
effort to protect Mississippi employers from Arkansas planters." ^ 

The alarm felt over the exodus prompted the mayor of New 
Orleans to telegraph the president of the Illinois Central Rail- 
road, asking that his road stop carrying negroes to the North. 
The latter replied that he had viewed with much concern the 
heavy exodus of negro labor from the South during the past 
year, and, because of his very important interest in that section, 
it was not to his advantage to encourage it, but as common 
carriers, they could not refuse to sell tickets or to provide the 
necessary transportation. It seemed to him that as long as their 
friends and kinsmen who had preceded them to the North and 
East were receiving a high scale of wages, the South would 
have to look for continued movement.^ 

After having enforced these drastic measures without securing 
satisfactory results, and having seen that any attempt to hold 
the negroes by force resulted apparently in an increased deter- 
mination to leave, there was resort to the policy of frightening 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration from Mississippi. 

2 Times Picayune, New Orleans, October 1, 1916. 

3 Work, Report on the Migration from Louisiana. 



EFFORTS TO CHECK THE MOVEMENT 79 

the negroes away from the North by circulating rumors as to 
the misfortunes to be experienced there. Negroes were then 
warned against the rigors of the northern winter and the death 
rate from pneumonia and tuberculosis. Social workers in the 
North reported frequent cases of men with simple colds who 
actually believed that they had developed " consumption." 
Speakers who wished to discourage the exodus reported " exact " 
figures on the death rate of the migrants in the North that were 
astounding. As, for example, it was said by one Reverend 
Mr. Parks that there were 2,000 of them sick in Philadelphia. 
The editor of a leading white paper in Jackson, Mississippi, 
made the remark that he feared that the result of the first 
winter's experience in the North would prove serious to the 
South, in so far as it would remove the bugbear of the northern 
climate. The returned migrants were encouraged to speak in 
disparagement of the North, and to give wide publicity to their 
utterances, emphasizing incidents of suffering reported through 
the press. 

When such efforts as these failed, however, the disconcerted 
planters and business men of the South resorted to another 
plan. Reconciliation and persuasion were tried. Meetings were 
held and speakers were secured and advised what to say. In 
cities and communities where contact on this plane had been 
infrequent, it was a bit difficult to approach the subject. The 
press of Georgia gave much space to the discussion of the 
movement and what ought to be done to stop it. The consensus 
of opinion of the white papers in the State was that the negro 
had not been fairly treated, and that better treatment would 
be one of the most effective means of checking the migration. 
Mob violence, it was pointed out, was one of the chief causes 
of the exodus.^ 

The Tifton (Georgia) Gazette commenting on the causes 
said : 

They have allowed negroes to be lynched, five at a time, on nothing 
stronger than suspicion ; they have allowed whole sections to be depopulated 
of them (notably in several north Georgia counties) ; they have allowed 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration from Mississippi. 



80 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

them to be whitecapped and to be whipped, and their homes burned, with 
only the weakest and most spasmodic efforts to apprehend or punish those 
guihy — when any efforts were made at all. Loss of much of the State's 
best labor is one of the prices Georgia is paying for unchecked mob activity 
against negroes often charged only with ordinary crimes. Current dis- 
patches from Albany, Georgia, in the center of the section apparently most 
affected, and where efforts are being made to stop the exodus by spreading 
correct information among the negroes, say that the heaviest migration of 
negroes has been from those counties in which there have been the worst 
outbreaks against negroes. It is developed by investigation that where there 
have been lynchings, the negroes have been most eager to believe what the 
emigration agents have told them of plots for the removal or extermination 
of the race. Comparatively few negroes have left Dougherty county, which 
is considered significant in view of the fact that this is one of the counties 
in southwest Georgia in which a lynching has never occurred. 

At Thomasville, Georgia, a mass meeting of colored citizens 
of the town with many from the country was held at the court 
house and addresses were made by several prominent white 
men, as well as by several colored with a view to taking some 
steps in regard to the exodus of negroes from this section to 
the North and West. The whole sentiment of the meeting was 
very amicable, the negroes applauding enthusiastically the 
speeches of the white men and the advice given by them. Reso- 
lutions were drawn up by a committee expressing the desire 
that the people of the two races continue to live together as 
they have done in the past and that steps be taken to adjust any 
difference between them.^ 

After a conference of three days at Waycross, Georgia, the 
negroes came to a decision as to the best manner in which to 
present their cause to the white people with a view to securing 
their cooperation towards the improvement of conditions in 
the South to make that section more habitable. " There are 
four things of which our people complain," they said, " and 
this conference urges our white friends to secure for us these 
things with all possible speed. First, more protection at the 
hands of the law. We ask that the law of the State, made 
and enforced by white men, should be made to apply with exact 
justice to both races. We have no sympathy for criminals, 
but we ask that the innocent shall be protected to the fullest 

^Atlanta Constitution, June 1, 1917, 



EFFORTS TO CHECK THE MOVEMENT 81 

extent of the law. Second, that more liberal provisions be made 
for the education of our people." They commended Governor 
Dorsey for his courageous recommendation in his inaugural 
address that an agricultural school should be established for 
negroes in some center in southern Georgia, and asked their 
friends everywhere to urge the members of the legislature from 
the various counties to put Governor Dorsey's noble sentiments 
into law. These memorialists felt, too, that as far as possible, 
wages should be in keeping with the cost of living, and that the 
white people generally should take an interest in the general 
welfare of the negroes.^ 

Tuskegee Institute was also quick to offer a remedy for the 
migration. In the latter part of September, 1916, the institu- 
tion made a strong effort to persuade the negro farmers to 
remain on the land instead of going to the cities. Conferences 
were held with the bankers of Tuskegee and with many planters 
of Macon county and a method of dealing with the situation 
was worked out. This method embraced a number of helpful 
suggestions as to how to solve their many perplexing problems.^ 

1 1. D. Davis served as president of the conference and J. B. Ellis as 
secretary. Former Superior Court Judge T. A. Parker and V. L. Stanton, 
president of the Chamber of Commerce, were among the prominent white 
people who attended. It was the sense of the conference that the colored 
people as a race should do all in their power in the present crisis to assist 
the government and, above all else, to help themselves by conserving food. 
The president of the conference said the colored people had to work harder 
than ever before with so many problems confronting their country. " It is 
no time for loafing," he said, " we must work early and late, and make our 
work count.' — Savannah Morning News, July 18, 1917. 

2 The suggestions were : to encourage the farmer to plant peanuts, soy 
beans, velvet beans and cotton as cash crops ; to create a cash market for 
such crops named above as at present have no cash market ; to encourage 
tenants to grow fall and winter gardens and to plant at least five acres 
of oats to the plow, seed being furnished when necessary ; to stipulate, in 
making tenant contracts for another year, that cotton stalks be plowed 
under in the fall, that special methods of combating the boll weevil be used. 
To advance no more than $25 to the plow, and, in every case possible, to 
refrain from any advance : to encourage land holders to rent land for part 
of the crops grown ; to urge the exercise of leniency on unpaid notes and 
mortgages due from thrifty and industrious farmers so as to give them a 
chance to recover from the boll weevil conditions and storm losses ; to create 
a market lasting all year for such crops as hay, cow-peas, sweet potatoes, 
poultry and live stock; to urge everybody to build fences and make pastures 
so as to grow more live stock and to produce more nearly all of the supplies 
used on the farm ; to carry on a food campaign in the country, devoting 
the first Sunday in October to the work of urging the people to plant gardens 
and sow oats, and to organize a Farmers' Loan Association in Macon 



82 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

At the twenty-sixth annual negro conference at Tuskegee In- 
stitute, the institution took that occasion to send through certain 
declarations a message to the negroes of the South. These decla- 
rations recited the distress and suffering impelling the negroes 
to migrate, expressing the appreciation of the necessity to do 
something to better their condition by embracing the new oppor- 
tunities offered them in the North. On the other hand, this in- 
stitution felt that there were many permanent opportunities for 
the masses of the colored people in the South, which is now 
entering upon a great era of development. Among these are 
the millions of acres of land yet to be cultivated, cities to be 
built, railroads to be extended and mines to be worked. These 
memorialists considered it of still greater importance to the 
negro that in the South they have acquired land, buildings, etc., 
valued at about five hundred million dollars. The negroes were, 
therefore, urged to stay on the soil which they owned. 

Addressing a word to the white people of the South, the con- 
ference said that the disposition of so many of the blacks to 
leave is not because they do not love the Southland but because 
they believe that in the North they will not only have more 
opportunity to get more money but that they will get better 
treatment, better protection under the law and better school 
facilities for their children. The conference urged, therefore, 
that the southern white people avail themselves of their greatest 
opportunity to cooperate with the blacks in the various com- 
munities and have a thorough understanding as to working for 
the common welfare of all. The delegates believed that the 
time had come for the best element of the whites and blacks 
to unite to protect the interests of both races to the end that 
more effective work may be done in the upbuilding of a greater 
South.^ 

In the same way the people of Mississippi soon discovered 
that any attempt forcibly to hold negroes resulted apparently 
in an increased determination to leave. Nor was it sufficient 

county to work with the Farmers' Loan Bank being established by the 
United States Government. 

1 Report of the Twenty-sixth Annual Negro Conference at Tuskegee 
Institute. 



EFFORTS TO CHECK THE MOVEMENT 83 

to warn the negroes against the rigors of the northern winter 
and the death rate from pneumonia and tuberculosis. In Green- 
wood, Mississippi, the difficulty was circumvented by using the 
Red Cross and the food conservation meetings as a forum for 
the discussion of the movement. This was the first time that 
the negroes and whites of Greenwood had met to discuss matters 
of mutual welfare. Bishop W. P. Thirkield of New Orleans 
addressed a body of negroes and whites on the movement. He 
suggested that whites get representative colored persons together 
and find the cause. He also suggested a remedy through better 
treatment, more wages and more cooperation between the races. 
Negro ministers stated that they were offered sums of money 
by bankers, planters and merchants to speak in discouragement 
of the movement. Some spoke, and others, by far the greater 
number, seem to have remained neutral.^ 

It was found necessary to increase wages from ten to twenty- 
five per cent and in some cases as much as 100 per cent to 
hold labor. The reasons for migration given by negroes were 
sought. In almost all cases the chief complaint was about treat- 
ment. An effort was made to meet this by calling conferences 
and by giving publicity to the launching of a campaign to make 
unfair settlements and other such grievances unpopular. Thus, 
in Bolivar county, Mississippi, a meeting was called, ostensibly 
to look after the economic welfare of the Delta country, but 
in reality to develop some plan for holding labor. A subcom- 
mittee of seventeen men was appointed to look into the labor 
situation. There were twelve white men and five negroes. The 
subcommittee met and reported to the body that the present 
labor shortage was due to the migration, and that the migration 
was due to a feeling of insecurity before the law, the unrestrained 
action of mobs, unfair methods of yearly settlement on farms 
and inadequate school facilities. As a result of the report, it 
was agreed to make an appropriation of $25,000 towards an 
agricultural high school, as a step towards showing an interest 
in the negroes of Bolivar county and thus give them reasons 
for remaining. A campaign was started to make unpopular 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration from Mississippi. 



84 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

the practice among farmers of robbing negroes of the returns 
from their labor, and a general effort was made by a few of 
the leading men behind the movement to create " a better feel- 
ing " between the races/ 

Wide publicity was given to the experiment in plantation 
government, and the policy was accepted by a number of planters 
as opportunistic action. Thus, one Mr. Abbott of Natchez, 
Mississippi, told the planters of his section that good treatment, 
adequate and sympathetic oversight are the important factors 
in any effort to hold labor. He made a trip to his farm every 
week, endeavoring to educate his tenants in modes of right 
living. Every man on his place had a bank account and was 
apparently satisfied. This example was presented with the state- 
ment that where these methods had been used, few had left. 
One planter purchased twenty-eight Ford automobiles to sell 
on easy terms to his tenants with the hope of contenting them. 

The newspapers published numerous letters from southern 
negro leaders urging negroes to consider well their step, assert- 
ing that the South is the best place for them and that the 
southern white man knows them and will in consequence be 
more lenient with their shortcomings. The papers further urged 
an increase in wages and better treatment. Wherever possible, 
there were published articles which pointed to the material pros- 
perity of negroes in the South. For example, a writer of Green- 
ville, said of negroes' loyalty in 1917: 

The prosperity as well as the patriotism of the negro farmer has been 
shown in the purchase of Liberty Bonds in the Delta. Many colored farm 
laborers subscribed for bonds. Every family on the place of Planter C. D. 
Walcott, near Hollandale, took a bond, while one negro, Boley Cox, a 
renter, bought bonds to the amount of $1,000 and gave his check for the 
total amount out of the savings of this year from his crop and still has 
cotton to sell. There are negro families on Delta plantations making more 
money this year than the salary of the governor of the State. 

When migrants could be induced to talk freely, they com- 
plained also against the treatment in the courts. Some of the 
cities consequently are known to have suspended their raids 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration from Mississippi, 



EFFORTS TO CHECK THE MOVEMENT 85 

and arrests on petty charges. In some instances the attempts 
at pacification reached almost incredible bounds. For example, 
a negro missed connection with his train through the fault 
of the railroad. His white friend advised him to bring suit. 
This he did and urged as his principal grievance that he was 
stranded in a strange town and was forced to sleep in quarters 
wholly at the mercy of bed bugs. It is said that he was awarded 
damages to the extent of $800. A' Jackson, Mississippi, daily 
paper that had been running a column of humorous incidents 
about negroes taken from the daily court sessions, which was 
very distasteful to the colored people of the city, discontinued 
it. Such methods as these have been the only ones to prove 
effective in bringing about an appreciable stem in the tide. 
With the advent of the United States Government constructing 
cantonments and establishing manufacturing plants in the South, 
the millions thus diverted to that section have caused such an 
increase in wages that the movement has been decidedly checked. 



CHAPTER VIII 

Effects of the Movement on the South 

The first changes wrought by this migration were unusually 
startling. Homes found themselves without servants, factories 
could not operate because of the lack of labor, farmers were 
unable to secure laborers to harvest their crops. Streets in towns 
and cities once crowded assumed the aspect of deserted thorough- 
fares, houses in congested districts became empty, churches, 
lodges and societies suffered such a large loss of membership 
that they had to close up or undergo reorganization. 

Probably the most striking change was the unusual increase 
in wages. The wages for common labor in Thomasville, Georgia, 
increased almost certainly 100 per cent. In Valdosta there was 
a general increase in the town and county of about 50 per cent, 
in Brunswick and Savannah the same condition obtained. The 
common laborer who had formerly received 80 cents a day 
earned thereafter $1.50 to $1.75. Farm hands working for 
from $10 to $15 per month were advanced to $20 or $35 per 
month. Brick masons who had received 50 cents per hour 
thereafter earned 62/^ cents and 70 cents per hour. In Savan- 
nah common laborers paid as high as $2 per day were advanced 
to $3. At the sugar refinery the rates were for women, 15 to 
22 cents per hour, men, 22 to 30 cents per hour. In the more 
skilled lines of work, the wages were for carpenters, $4 to $G 
per day, painters, $2.50 to $4 per day, and bricklayers $4 to 
$5 per day. 

The increase in the Birmingham district may be studied 
as a type of the changes effected in the industrial centers of 
the South, as Birmingham is a great coal mining center and, 
with the exception of Pittsburgh, is the greatest iron ore dis- 
trict in the United States. On November 6, 1917, the average 
daily wage earnings of forty-five men was $5.49. On Novem- 

86 



EFFECTS OF THE MOVEMENT ON THE SOUTH 87 

ber 10, 1917, the average for seventy-five men was $5.30. One 
man was earning $10 a day, two $9 to $10 a day, five $8 to $9, 
six $7 to $8, ten $6 to $7, fourteen $5 to $6, thirty-two $4 to 
$5, nine $3 to $4, and six under $3. In the other coal and 
iron ore sections the earnings had been similarly increased.^ 

In Mississippi, largely a farming section, wages did not in- 
crease to the extent that they did in Alabama, but some increase 
was necessary to induce the negroes to remain on the planta- 
tions and towns to keep the industries going. In Greenville 
wages increased at first about ten per cent but this did not 
suffice to stop the migration, for, because of the scarcity of 
labor, factories and stores had to employ white porters, drug- 
gists had to deliver their own packages and firms had to resort 
to employing negro women. On the farms much of the crop 
was lost on account of the scarcity of labor. In Greenwood 
wages of common laborers increased from $1 and $1.25 to $1.75 
per day. Clarksdale was also compelled to offer laborers more 
remuneration. Vicksburg found it necessary to increase the 
wages of negroes from $1.25 to $2 per day. There were laborers 
on steamboats who received $75 to $100 per month. 

At Leland 500 to 1,000 men received $1.75 per day. The 
oil mills of Indianola raised the wages of the negroes from 
$1.50 to $2 per day. At Laurel the average daily wage was 
raised from $1.35 to $1.65, the maximum wage being $2. Wages 
increased at jMeridian from 90 cents and $1.25 to $1.50 and 
$1.75 per day. The wholesale houses increased the compensa- 
tion of their employes from $10 to $12 per week. From $1.10 
in Hattiesburg the daily wage was raised to $1.75 and $2 per 
day. Wages in Jackson increased from $1 and $1.25 to $1.35 
and $1.50 per day. In Natchez there was an increase of 25 
per cent. On the whole, throughout the State there was an 
increase of from 10 to 30 per cent and in some instances of 
as much as 100 per cent.^ 

Throughout the South there was not only a change in policy 
as to the method of stopping the migration of the blacks to 

1 Work, Report on the Migration from Alabama. 

2 Johnson, Report on the Migration from Mississippi. 



88 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

the North, but a change in the economic poHcy of the South, 
Southern business men and planters soon found out that it was 
impossible to treat the negro as a serf and began to deal with 
him as an actual employe entitled to his share of the returns 
from his labor. It was evident that it would be very much 
better to have the negroes as coworkers in a common cause 
than to have them abandon their occupations in the South, leav- 
ing their employers no opportunity to secure to themselves ade- 
quate income to keep them above want. 

A more difficult change of attitude was that of the labor 
unions. They had for years been antagonistic to the negroes 
and had begun to drive them from many of the higher pursuits 
of labor which they had even from the days of slavery monopo- 
lized. The skilled negro laborer has gradually seen his chances 
grow less and less as the labor organizations have invaded the 
South. In the end, however, the trade unions have been com- 
pelled to yield, although complete economic freedom of the negro 
in the South is still a matter of prospect. 

There was, too, a decided change in the attitude of the whole 
race toward the blacks. The white people could be more easily 
reached, and very soon there was brought about a better under- 
standing between the races. Cities gave attention to the im- 
provement of the sanitary condition of the negro sections, which 
had so long been neglected; negroes were invited to take part 
in the clean-up week; the Women's Health League called special 
meetings of colored women, conferred with them and urged them 
to organize community clubs. Committees of leading negroes 
dared to take up with their employers the questions of better 
accommodations and better treatment of negro labor. Members 
of these committees went before chambers of commerce to set 
forth their claims. Others dared boldly to explain to them that 
the negroes were leaving the South because they had not been 
given the treatment which should be accorded men. 

Instead of expressing their indignation at such efforts on 
the part of the negroes, the whites listened to them attentively. 
Accordingly, joint meetings of the whites and blacks were held 
to hear frank statements of the case from speakers of both 



EFFECTS OF THE MOVEMENT ON THE SOUTH 89 

races. One of the most interesting of these meetings was the 
one held in Birmingham, Alabama. The negroes addressing 
the audience frankly declared that it was impossible to bring 
back from the North the migrants who were making good there, 
but that the immediate problem requiring solution was how to 
hold in the South those who had not gone. These negroes made 
it clear that it was impossible for negro leaders through the 
pulpit and press to check the movement, but that only through 
a change in the attitude of the whites to the blacks could the 
latter be made to feel that the Southland is safe for them. 

Here we see the coming to pass of a thing long desired by 
those interested in the welfare of the South and long rejected 
by those who have always prized the peculiar interest of one 
race more highly than the welfare of all. White men, for the 
first time, were talking on the streets with negroes just as white 
men talk with each other. The merchants gave their negro 
patrons more attention and consideration, A prominent white 
man said, " I have never seen such changes as have come about 
within the last four months. I know of white men and negroes 
who have not dared to speak to one another on the streets to 
converse freely." The suspension of harsh treatment was so 
marked in some places that few negroes neglected to mention it. 
In Greenwood and Jackson, Mississippi, the police were in- 
structed to curtail their practices of beating negroes. Several 
court cases in which negroes were involved terminated favorably 
for them. There followed direcdy after the exodus an attempt 
at more even handed justice, or at least some conciliatory meas- 
ures were adopted. The authorities at Laurel, Mississippi, were 
cautioned to treat negroes better, so as to prevent their leaving. 
There is cited the case of a negro arrested on an ambiguous 
charge. He was assigned to the county chain gang and put 
to work on the roads. At this time the treatment in the courts 
was being urged by negroes as a reason for leaving. This 
negro's case was discussed. He was sent back from the county 
roads alone for a shovel. He did not return; and his return 
was not expected.^ 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration from Mississippi. 



90 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

Conferences of negroes and whites in Mississippi emphasized 
the necessity of cooperation between the races for their common 
good. The whites said, to quote a negro laborer, *' We must 
just get together." A negro said : " The dominant race is just 
a bit less dominant at present." " We are getting more con- 
sideration and appreciation," said another. From another quar- 
ter came the remark that " instead of the old proverbial accu- 
sation — shiftless and unreliable — negro labor is being heralded 
as ' the only dependable labor extant, etc' " ^ A general re- 
view of the results made it clear that there was a disposition 
on the part of the white population to give some measure of 
those benefits, the denial of which was alleged as the cause 
of the exodus. For those who remained conditions were much 
more tolerable, although there appeared to persist a feeling of 
apprehension that these concessions would be retracted as soon 
as normal times returned. Some were of the opinion that the 
exodus was of more assistance to those negroes who stayed be- 
hind than to those who went away. 

As a matter of fact, the white people in the South began 
to direct attention to serious work of reconstruction to make 
that section inviting to the negro. Bolivar county, Mississippi, 
as a direct result of the recommendation of the labor committee, 
made an appropriation of $25,000 toward an/agricultural high 
school, the first of its kind in the State. The school boards 
of Coahoma and Adams counties have appointed Jeanes Founda- 
tion Supervisors and, in Coahoma county, promised a farm 
demonstration agent. They also made repairs on the school 
buildings in towns, and prominent whites have expressed a 
willingness to duplicate every dollar negroes raise for rural 
school improvements. A large planter in the Big Creek neigh- 
borhood has raised, together with his tenants, $1,000 for schools 
and the superintendent of schools has gone over the county 
urging planters to give land for negro schools. Two other large 
planters, whose tenants number into the hundreds, have made 
repairs on the schoolhouses on their plantations. The Mississippi 
Council of Defense passed a resolution calling upon the State 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration from Mississippi. 



EFFECTS OF THE MOVEMENT ON THE SOUTH 91 

to put a farm demonstrator and home economics agent to work 
in rural communities to make living conditions better in the 
effort to induce the people to stay. 

This upheaval in the South, according to an investigator, will 
be helpful to all. 

The decrease in the black population in those communities where the 
negroes outnumber the whites will remove the fear of negro domination. 
Many of the expensive precautions which the southern people have taken 
to keep the negroes down, much of the terrorism incited to restrain the 
blacks from self-assertion will no longer be considered necessary; for, 
having the excess in numbers on their side, the whites will finally rest 
assured that the negroes may be encouraged without any apprehension that 
they may develop enough power to subjugate or embarrass their former 
masters. 

The negroes, too, are very much in demand in the South and the intelli- 
gent whites will gladly give them larger opportunities to attach them to 
that section, knowing that the blacks, once conscious of their power to move 
freely throughout the country wherever they may improve their condition, 
will never endure hardships like those formerly inflicted upon the race. 
The South is already learning that the negro is the most desirable labor for 
that section, that the persecution of negroes not only drives them out but 
makes the employment of labor such a problem that the South will not be 
an attractive section for capital. It will, therefore, be considered the duty 
of business men to secure protection to the negroes lest their ill treatment 
force them to migrate to the extent of bringing about a stagnation of 
business. 

The exodus has driven home the truth that the prosperity of the South 
is at the mercy of the negro. Dependent on cheap labor, which the bull- 
dozing whites will not readily furnish, the wealthy southerners must finally 
reach the position of regarding themselves and the negroes as having a 
community of interests which each must promote. " Nature itself in those 
States," Douglass said, "came to the rescue of the negro. He had labor, 
the South wanted it, and must have it or perish. Snice he was free he 
could then give it, or withhold it; use it where he was, or take it elsewhere, 
as he pleased. His labor made him a slave and his labor could, if he would, 
make him free, comfortable and independent. It is more to him than either 
fire, sword, ballot boxes or bayonets. It touches the heart of the South 
through its pocket." Knowing that the negro has this silent weapon to be 
used against his employer or the community, the South is already giving 
the race better educational facilities, better railway accommodations, and 
will eventually, if the advocacy of certain southern newspapers be heeded, 
grant them political privileges. Wages in the South, therefore, have risen 
even in the extreme southwestern States, where there is an opportunity to 
import Mexican labor. Reduced to this extremity, the southern aristocrats 
have begun to lose some of their race prejudice, which has not hitherto 
yielded to reason or philanthropy. 



92 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

Southern men are telling their neighbors that their section must abandon 
the policy of treating the negroes as a problem and construct a program 
for recognition rather than for repression. Meetings are, therefore, being 
held to find out what the negroes want and what may be done to keep them 
contented. They are told that the negro must be elevated, not exploited; 
that to make the South what it must needs be, the cooperation of all is 
needed to train and equip the men of all races for efficiency. The aim of 
all then must be to reform or get rid of the unfair proprietors who do not 
give their tenants a fair division of the returns from their labor. To 
this end the best whites and blacks are urged to come together to find a 
working basis for a systematic effort in the interest of all.i 

Another evidence of the beneficent effects of the decrease in 
the population in the Black Belt of the South is the interest now 
almost generally manifested in the improvement of the negro 
quarters in southern cities. For a number of years science has 
made an appeal in behalf of the thoroughly clean city, knowing 
that since the germ does not draw the color line, a city can not 
be kept clean as long as a substantial portion of its citizens are 
crowded into one of its oldest and least desirable parts, neglected 
by the city and avoided by the whites. Doing now what science 
has hitherto failed to accomplish, this peculiar economic need 
of the negro in the South has brought about unusual changes 
in the appearance of southern cities. Darkened portions of ur- 
ban districts have been lighted; streets in need of improvement 
have been paved; the water, light and gas systems have been 
extended to negro quarters and play grounds and parks have 
been provided for their amusement. 

No less important has been the effect of the migration on 
the southern land tenure and the credit system, the very heart 
of the trouble in that section. For generations the negroes have 
borne it grievously that it has been difficult to obtain land for 
cultivation other than by paying exorbitant rents or giving their 
landlords an unusually large share of the crops. They have 
been further handicapped by the necessity of depending on such 
landlords to supply them with food and clothing at such ex- 
orbitant prices that their portion of the return from their labor 
has been usually exhausted before harvesting the crops. Cheated 
thus in the making of their contracts and in purchasing necessi- 

1 Woodson, A Century of Negro Migration, pp. 183-186. 



EFFECTS OF THE MOVEMENT ON THE SOUTH 93 

ties, they have been but the prey of sharks and harpies bent 
upon keeping them in a state scarcely better than that of slavery. 
Southerners of foresig^it ^ave, therefore, severely 'criticized 
this custom and, in a measure, have contributed to its decline. 
The press and the pulpit of the South are now urging the planters 
to abolish this system that the negroes may enjoy the fruits of 
their own labor. It is largely because of these urgent appeals 
in behalf of fair play, during the economic upheaval, that this 
legalized robbery is losing its hold in the South. 

Recently welfare work among negroes has become a matter 
of much concern to the industries of the South in view of the 
exceptional efforts made along this line in the North. At the 
very beginning of the migration the National League on Urban 
Conditions among Negroes pointed out that firms wishing to 
retain negro laborers and to have them become efficient must 
give special attention to welfare work.^ A considerable number 
of firms employing negro laborers in the North have used the 
services of negro welfare workers. Their duties have been 
to work with the men, study and interpret their wants and stand 
as a medium between the employer and his negro workmen. 
It has, therefore, come to be recognized in certain industrial cen- 
ters in the South that money expended for this purpose is a 
good investment. Firms employing negro laborers in any con- 
siderable numbers have found out that they must be dealt with 
on the same general basis as white laborers. Among the in- 
dustries in the South now looking out for their negro laborers 
in this respect are the Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry 
Dock Company, the American Cast Iron Pipe Company of Bir- 
mingham and the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company. 

These efforts take the form which usually characterize the 
operations of social workers. The laborers are cared for through 
the Y. M. C. A., the Y. W. C. A., the National Urban League 

lAt the National Conference, "The Problems of the Employment Man- 
ager in Industry" held at Rochester, New York, in May, 1918, considerable 
time was given to this question. In discussing psychology in the employ- 
•ment of negro workingmen Mr. E. K. Jones, Director of the Urban League, 
pointed out that negro laborers must be given not only good housing and 
recreation facilities but also the opportunity for advancement. "Give them," 
said he, " a chance to become foremen and to engage in all kinds of skill 
and delicate labor. This will inspire them and place new life in them." 



94 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

and social settlement establishments. The attention of the wel- 
fare workers is directed to the improvement of living conditions 
through proper sanitation and medical attention. They are sup- 
plied with churches, school buildings and bath houses, enjoy 
the advantages of community singing, dramatic clubs and public 
games, and receive instruction in gardening, sewing and cook- 
ing. Better educational facilities are generally provided. 

On the whole the South will profit by this migration. Such 
an upheaval was necessary to set up a reaction in the southern 
mind to enable its leaders of thought to look beyond themselves 
into the needs of the man far down. There is in progress, 
therefore, a reshaping of public opinion, in fact a peaceful revo- 
lution in a land cursed by slavery and handicapped by aristoc- 
racy. The tendency to maltreat the negroes without cause, the 
custom of arresting them for petty offenses and the institution 
of lynching have all been somewhat checked by this change 
in the attitude of the southern white man towards the negro. 
The check in the movement of the negroes to other parts may 
to some extent interfere with this development of the new 
public opinion in the South, but this movement has been so 
far reaching in its effect as to compel the thinking class of the 
South to construct and carry out a policy of fair play to provide 
against that day when that section may find itself again at the 
mercy of the laboring class of the negroes. 



CHAPTER IX 

The Situation in St. Louis 

It will be both interesting and profitable to follow these 
migrants into their new homes in the North. Among the most 
interesting of these communities is the black colony in St. Louis. 
St. Louis is one of the first cities of the border States, a city 
first in the memory of the unsettled migrant when the North 
was mentioned. During a 'long period thousands had gone 
there, settled down for a while and moved on, largely to Illinois, 
a sort of promised land. Conservative estimates place the 
number of negro migrants who have remained there at 10,000. 
The number of migrants passing through this city, its reception 
of them, the living conditions provided and the community in- 
terest displayed in grappling with the problem are facts extremely 
necessary to an understanding of the readjustment of the 
migrants in the North. 

The composition of the city's population is significant. It 
has a large foreign element. Of the foreign population Ger- 
mans predominate, probably because of the brewery industry 
of the American white population. The southern whites are 
of longest residence and dominate the sentiment. The large 
industrial growth of the town, however, has brought great 
numbers of northern whites. The result is a sort of mixture 
of traditions. The apparent results of this mixture may be 
observed in these inconsistencies; separate schools, but common 
transportation facilities: separate playgrounds, but common bath 
houses; separate theaters and restaurants with the color line 
drawn as strictly as in the South.^ There has been considerable 
migration of whites to this city from Kentucky, Tennessee, Ala- 
bama and Mississippi. 

1 A segregation law was passed by an overwhelming majority. Negroes 
secured an injunction and the matter rested there until the United States 
Supreme Court declared the segregation laws invalid. 

95 



96 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

As there are separate schools in St. Louis, the statistics of 
the St. Louis system may serve as an index to the sources and 
the increase of the negro population. The school population was 
known to increase approximately 500 between 1916 and 1917.^ 
The school registration shows communities in which have settled 
numbers of families from the same State and even the same 
town. For example, in the vicinity of the Dessalines School 
in the 1700 block on 12th Street, North, Mississippi colonists 
are in preponderant majority. The towns represented here are 
located in the northeastern part of that State. In the vicinity 
of the L'Overture School are distinct colonies from west Ten- 
nessee and Alabama. On Lawton Avenue, another popular 
street, Mississippians also are in majority. What makes migra- 
tion to St. Louis from these States easy is probably its convenient 
location and direct railway communication with them. There 
has been no influx from Texas and Florida. 

How St. Louis secured her migrants makes an interesting 
story. The difficulty of apprehending labor agents can be ap- 
preciated when it is recalled that the most zealous efforts of 
authority in the majority of cases failed to find more than a 
trace of where they had been operating. It was asserted by 
many of the migrants to this city, however, that they had 
been approached at some time by agents. Large industrial plants 
located in the satellite city of St. Louis sent men to Cairo, a 
junction point, to meet incoming trains and make offers. There 
developed a competition for men. They were first induced to 
accept jobs in smaller towns, but lack of recreational facilities 
and amusements and the monotony of life attracted them to 
the bright lights of St. Louis. The large alien population of 
this city at the beginning of the war made some employers 
anxious about the safety of their plants. The brick yards had 
been employing foreigners exclusively. When war began so 
many left that it was felt that their business was in danger. 
They advertised for 3,000 negroes, promising them $2.35 per 
day. The railroad construction companies sent out men to 
attract negroes to the city. They assert, however, that their 

1 St. Louis School Reports, 1916 and 1917. 



THE SITUATION IN ST. LOUIS 97 

agents solicited men only after they had started for the North. ^ 
The industries of St. Louis had much to do with the migra- 
tion. In this city there are more than twenty breweries. None 
of these employ negroes. St. Louis also has a large shoe in- 
dustry. In this line no negroes are employed. A short while 
ago a large steel plant employing foreigners in large numbers 
had a strike. The strike was settled but the management took 
precautions against its repetition. For each white person em- 
ployed a negro was placed on a corresponding job. This parallel 
extended from unskilled work to the highest skilled pursuits. 
The assumption was that a strike, should it recur, could not 
cripple their industry entirely. About 80 per cent of the em- 
ployes of the brick yards, 50 per cent of the employes of the 
packing houses, 50 per cent of the employes of the American 
Car and Foundry Company are negroes. The terra cotta works, 
electrical plants, united railways and a number of other foundries 
employ negroes in large numbers.^ 

The range of wages for unskilled work is $2.25 to $3.35 
per day, with an average wage of about $2.75. For some skilled 
work negroes receive from 35 cents to 50 cents an hour. Wages 
differ even between St. Louis and East St. Louis, because of 
a difference in the types of industries in the two cities. Domes- 
tic service has been literally drained, and wages here have been 
forced upwards to approximate in some measure the increase 
in other lines. 

The housing facilities for negroes, though not the best, are 
superior to such accommodations in most southern cities. There 
are about six communities in which the negroes are in the 
majority. Houses here are as a rule old, having been occupied 
by whites before they were turned over to negroes. Before 
the migration to the city, property owners reported that they 
could not keep their houses rented half of the year. According 
to the statements of real estate men, entire blocks stood vacant, 
and many vacant houses, after windows had been broken and 
plumbing stolen, were wrecked to avoid paying taxes on them. 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration to St. Louis. 

2 Ibid. 



98 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

Up to the period of the riot in East St. Louis, houses were 
easily available. The only congestion experienced at all fol- 
lowed the overnight increase of 7,000 negroes from East St. 
Louis, after the riot. Rents then jumped 25 per cent, but nor- 
mal conditions soon prevailed. Sanitation is poor, but the 
women coming from the South, in the opinion of a reputable 
physician of the city, are good housewives. New blacks have 
been added to all of the negro residential blocks. In the ten- 
ement district there have been no changes. The select negro 
residential section is the abandoned residential district of the 
whites. Few new houses have been built. An increase of 
rent from $5 to $10 per month is usually the sequel of the 
turning over of a house to negroes. 

Community interest in the situation was at first dormant but 
not entirely lacking. The migration was well under way be- 
fore there was any organization to make an adjustment in 
this unusual situation. Interested individuals made sporadic 
efforts to bring pressure to bear here and there, but the situa- 
tion was not really appreciated until the outbreak in East St. 
Louis. There is an active branch of the National Association 
for the Advancement of Colored People, and just recently there 
has been established a branch of the National League on Urban 
Conditions among Negroes to deal with the peculiarly local 
problems.^ 

East St. Louis, another attractive center for the migrants, 
is unique among northern industrial cities. It is an industrial 
offshoot of St. Louis, which has outstripped its parent in ex- 
pansion. Its geographical advantage has made it a formidable 
rival even with its less developed civic institutions. Perched 
on the banks of the Mississippi River, with twenty-seven rail- 
roads radiating from it, within easy reach of the coal mines, 
there has been made possible a rapid and uneven growth. It 
has doubled its population for three successive decades. Re- 
volving around this overgrown center are a number of small 
towns: Brooklyn, Lovejoy, Belleville, Venice, Granite City and 
Madison. Its plant owners live in St. Louis and other cities, 

1 Reports of the National Urban League, 1916, 1917. 



THE SITUATION IN ST. LOUIS 99 

and consequently have little civic interest in East St. Louis. 
Land is cheaper, taxes are low. In fact, some of the largest 
concerns have been accused of evading them entirely. It has 
been artificially fed and, in process of growth, there have been 
irregularities in the structure of the community which eventu- 
ally culminated in the greatest disgrace of the North, the mas- 
sacre of about one hundred negroes. 

Fifty years ago before the river dividing St. Louis from 
East St. Louis was bridged, men rowed over from St. Louis 
for their cock fights, dog fights and prize fights. Escaped 
prisoners found a haven there. The town was called " The 
Bloody Isle." The older population is made up of whites from 
West Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky and Georgia. The men 
who have risen to political prominence in the city are for the 
most part saloon keepers. As many as 100 saloons flourished 
in the town before the riot. The city government has always 
been bad. The attitude of the citizenry appeared to be that 
of passive acceptance of conditions which must not be interfered 
with. As an example of the state of mind, much surprise was 
manifested when an investigation of the rioting was begun. 
Criminals have been known to buy immunity. The mayor was 
assassinated some time ago and litde or no effort was made to 
punish his murderers. 

Long before an influx was felt, it had been foreseen and 
mentioned by several men, most notably, Mr. Charles Nagel, 
Secretary of Commerce and Labor under President Taft. The 
East St. Louis plants had been going to Ellis Island for laborers. 
When this supply was checked, steps were taken to .secure 
negroes. Agents were sent to Cairo to get men en route further 
North. One advertisement which appeared in a Texas paper 
promised negroes $3.05 a day and houses. It is estimated that 
as a result of this beckoning the increase in population due to 
the migration was 5,000. A number of other negro migrants, 
however, work in East St. Louis and live in St. Louis, Lovejoy 
and Brooklyn, a negro town. The school registration of the 
city showed that the largest numbers of these blacks came from 
Mississippi and West Tennessee. Despite the advertisement for 



100 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

men in Texas newspapers, few came to this city from that 
State/ 

The industries requiring the labor of these negroes were 
numerous. The packing plants of Swift, Armour, Nelson and 
Morris employ large numbers of negroes. In some of the un- 
skilled departments fifty per cent of the employes are black. 
The Aluminum Ore Works employs about 600 blacks and 1,000 
whites. This is the plant in which occurred the strike which 
in a measure precipitated the riot. The IMissouri Malleable 
Iron Works makes it a policy to keep three classes of men at 
work and as nearly equal numerically as possible. The usual 
division is one-third foreign whites, one-third American whites 
and one-third blacks. The theory is that these three elements 
will not unite to strike. Negroes are also employed in the 
glass works, cotton presses and transfer yards. Their wages 
for unskilled work ranges from $2.75 to $3.75 generally for 
eight hours a day. Semiskilled work pays from 35 cents to 
50 cents an hour. 

The housing of the negro migrants was one of the most 
perplexing problems in East St. Louis. The type of houses 
available for negroes, before being burned during the riot, were 
small dilapidated cottages. Congestion, of course, was a prob- 
lem which accompanied the influx of negroes. The incoming 
population, consisting largely of lodgers, was a misfit in the 
small cottages designed for families, and they were generally 
neglected by the tenant and by the local authorities. The seg- 
regated vice district was located in the negro locality. The 
crowding which followed the influx forced some few negroes 
into the white localities. Against this invasion there was strong 
opposition which culminated in trouble.^ 

The roots of the fateful horror that made East St. Louis 
notorious, however, are to be found largely in a no less notorious 
civic structure. Politics of a shady nature was the handmaiden 
of the local administration. The human fabric of the town 
was made up of sad types of rough, questionable characters, 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration to St. Louis. 

- See Congressional Report on the Massacre of East St. Louis. 



THE SITUATION IN ST. LOUIS 101 

drawn to the town by its industries and the money that flowed 
from them. There was a large criminal element. These lived 
in a little corner of the towm, where was located also the segre- 
gated vice district. Negroes were interested in politics. In fact, 
they were a considerable factor and succeeded in placing in 
office several black men of their choice. 

Trouble started at the Aluminum Ore Works which employed 
a large number of whites and blacks. In February of 1917 the 
men struck while working on government contracts. Immedi- 
ately, it is claimed, negroes w^ere sought for in other States 
to take their places. An adjustment was made, but it lasted 
only a short while. Then followed a second strike at which 
the employers balked. In this they felt reasonably secure for 
negroes were then pouring into the city from the South during 
the spring exodus. There followed numerous evidences of 
brooding conflict such as insults on the street cars, comments 
and excitement over the daily arrival of large numbers from 
the South. On one day three hundred are said to have arrived. 
Standing on the streets, waiting for cars, lost in wandering 
about the streets searching for homes, the negroes presented a 
helpless group. The search for homes carried them into the 
most undesirable sections. Here the scraggy edges of society 
met. The traditional attitude of unionists toward negroes be- 
gan to assert itself. Fear that such large numbers would weaken 
present and subsequent demands aroused considerable opposition 
to their presence. Meetings were held, exciting speeches were 
made and street fights became common. The East St. Louis 
Journal is said to have printed a series of articles under the 
caption, " Make East St. Louis a Lily White Town." It was 
a simple matter of touching off the smoldering tinder. In the 
riot that followed over a hundred negroes were killed. These, 
for the most part lived away from the places of the most vio- 
lent disturbances, and were returning home, unconscious of the 
fate that awaited them. The riot has recently been subject to 
a congressional investigation, but few convictions resulted and 
those whites convicted escaped serious punishment.^ 

1 See Congressional Report on the Massacre of East St. Louis. 



CHAPTER X 
Chicago and Its Environs 

Chicago, the metropolis of the West, remembered! in the 
South since the World's Fair as a far-away city of hope from 
which come all great things; unceasingly advertised through its 
tremendous mail order and clothing houses, schools and in- 
dustries until it became a synonym for the " North," was the 
mouth of the stream of negroes from the South. It attracted 
all types of men, brought them in, encouraged them and cired 
for them because it needed them. It is estimated that within 
the period of eighteen months beginning January, 1916, more 
than fifty thousand negroes entered the city. This estimate 
was based on averages taken from actual count of daily arrivals. 

There were at work in this city a number of agencies which 
served to stimulate the movement. The stock yards were sorely 
in need of men. It was reported that they had emissaries in 
the South. Whether it is true or not, it is a fact that it was 
most widely advertised throughout the States of Mississippi 
and Louisiana that employment could easily be secured in the 
Chicago stock yards district. The report was circulated that 
fifty thousand men were needed, and the packers were pro- 
viding houses for migrants and caring for them until they 
had established themselves. The Illinois Central Railroad 
brought hundreds on free transportation with the understand- 
ing that the men would enter the employ of the company. The 
radical negro newspapers published here urged negroes to leave 
the South and promised employment and protection. It is in- 
deed little wonder that Chicago received so great a number. 

The most favorable aspect of their condition in their new 
home is their opportunity to earn money. Coming from the 
South, where they were accustomed to work for a few cents 
a day or a few dollars a week, to an industrial center where they 

102 



CHICAGO AND ITS ENVIRONS 103 

can now earn as much in an hour or a day, they have the feel- 
ing that this city is really the land overflowing with milk and 
honey. In the occupations in which they are now employed, 
many of them are engaged at skilled labor, receiving the same 
and, in some cases, greater compensation than was paid white 
men in such positions prior to the outbreak of the war. Talk- 
ing with a number of them the investigator obtained such in- 
formation as, that men were working at the Wilson Packing 
House and receiving $3 a day; at the Marks Manufacturing 
Company for $3.75; as lumber stackers at $4 a day, at one 
of the rolling mills for $25 a week, and on the railroads at 
$125 a month. The large majority of these migrants .are 
engaged in the packing houses of Chicago where they are em- 
ployed to do all sorts of skilled and unskilled labor with the 
corresponding compensation.^ 

It was soon discovered that the needs of the migrants could 

not all be supplied by money. Something had to be done for 

their social welfare. Various agencies assisted in caring for 

the needs of the 25,000 or more negro migrants who, it is 

estimated, have come to Chicago within three years. The Chicago 

Renting Agents' Association appointed a special committee to 

study the problems of housing them and to confer with leaders 

in civic organization and with representative negroes. The 

Cook County Association considered the question of appointing 

some one to do Sunday School work exclusively among the 

newcomers. The Housing Committee of the Chicago Women's 

Club arranged for an intensive survey of housing conditions. 

The negroes themselves organized to help the recently arrived 

members of the race. Negro ministers, lawyers, physicians and 

social workers cooperated in handling the problem through 

churches, Sunday Schools and in other ways.^ 

The negroes residing in Chicago, who came from particular 
States in the South organized clubs to look after the migrants 
from their own States. The result was that an Alabama Club, 
a Georgia Club. Mississippi Club, Tennessee Club and so on 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration to Chicago. 

2 Ibid. 



104 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

were formed. Committees from these clubs met the train and 
helped the newcomers to find homes and work. The chief 
agency in handling the migrant situation in Chicago was the 
local branch of the National League on Urban Conditions 
among Negroes. The work which the league did for the mi- 
grants as set forth in the report of 1917 was of three kinds: 
employment, housing and adjustment or assimilation. The pol- 
icy of the Urban League with regard to employment was to 
find and, where possible, to open new occupations hitherto de- 
nied negroes. The housing problem was urgent. The most that 
the league was able to do thus far was to find lodging, to 
assist in finding houses. Lodging accommodations for more 
than 400 individuals were personally inspected by several women 
volunteers. It is impossible to do much else short of the con- 
struction of apartments for families and for single men. 

The league's first efforts to assimilate the new people started 
with their entrance to the city. To see that they received proper 
directions upon reaching the railroad station was an important 
task. It was able to secure the services of a volunteer travelers' 
aid society. This agent met trains and directed migrants to 
destinations when they had addresses of relatives and friends. 
In the absence of such they were sent to proper homes for lodg- 
ing, and to the league office for employment. 

The great majority of negroes in Chicago live in a limited 
area known as the South Side. State Street is the thorough- 
fare. It is the black belt of the city. This segregation is aided 
on one hand by the difficulty of securing houses in other sec- 
tions of the city, and on the other, by the desire of negroes to 
live where they have greatest political strength. Previous to 
the migration, hundreds of houses stood vacant in the sections 
of the district west of State Street from which they had moved 
only a few years before, when it was found that better homes 
were available. The presence of negroes in an exclusively white 
locality usually brought forth loud protests and frequently ended 
in the abandonment of the block by whites. The old district 
lying west of State Street held the worst type of houses. It 
was also in disrepute because of its proximity to the old segre- 



CHICAGO AND ITS ENVIRONS 105 

gated vice area. The newcomers, unacquainted with its repu- 
tation, found no hesitancy in moving in until better homes could 
be secured. 

Congestion has been a serious problem only during short 
periods when the influx was greater than the city's immediate 
capacity for distributing them. During the summer of 1917 
this was the situation. A canvass of real estate dealers sup- 
plying houses for negroes conducted by the Chicago Urban 
League revealed the fact that on a single day there were G6-i 
negro applicants for houses, and only 50 supplied, while there 
were 97 houses advertised for rent. In some instances as many 
as ten persons were listed for a single house. This condition 
did not continue long. There were .counted thirty-six new 
localities opening up to negroes within three months. These 
localities were formerly white. / 

An accompaniment to this congestion was the increase in 
rents of from 5 to 30 per cent and sometimes as high as 50 
per cent. This was explained by landlords as a return to former 
standards after the property had depreciated through the coming 
in of negroes. A more detailed study of living conditions 
among the migrants in Chicago was made by a student of the 
School of Civics and Philanthropy. The study included 75 
families of less than a year's residence. In the group were 60 
married couples, 128 children, eight women and nine married 
men with families in the South. 

How this large group — 265 persons — fresh from a region 
where life is enlivened by a mild climate and ample space was 
to find living quarters in an overcrowded section of two Chicago 
blocks was a problem of many aspects. A single furnished room, 
rented by the week, provided the solution for each of 41 fami- 
lies, while 24: families rented homes by the month, four families 
occupied two rooms each. In some instances, this meant over- 
crowding so serious as to threaten morals and health. The 
Urban League interested corporations and capitalists in the 
construction of modern apartment houses with small individual 
apartments. It endeavored also to have the city see the neces- 
sity of preventing occupancy of the physically unfit houses. 



y 



106 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

The league conducted a campaign to educate the masses in re- 
gard to housing, and payment of exorbitant rents was discour- 
aged. The various city departments were asked to enforce 
ordinances in negro neighborhoods. In this way the league 
tried to reduce overcrowding and extortionate rentals. 

All of the arrivals here did not stay. They were only tem- 
porary guests awaiting the opportunity to proceed further and 
settle in surrounding cities and towns. This tendency appears 
to have been to reach those fields offering the highest wages 
and most permanent prospects. With Chicago as a center there 
are within a radius of from one hundred to one hundred and 
fifty miles a number of smaller industrial centers — suburbs of 
Chicago in which enterprises have sprung up because of the 
nearness to the unexcelled shipping and other facilities which 
Chicago furnished. A great many of the migrants who came 
to Chicago found employment in these satellite places.^ 

One of these towns was Rockford, a city of about 55,000 
people before Camp Grant began to add to its population. It 
is estimated that there were about 1,500 negroes in Rockford, 
1,000 of whom came in during 1916 and 1017. The Rockford 
Malleable Iron Company, which never hired more than five 
or six negroes until two years ago, has nearly one hundred 
in its employ. A timekeeper, five inspectors, a machinist, a 
porter, three foremen and twenty of the molders are negroes. 
The Free Sewing Machine Company, Emerson and Birmingham, 
the Trahern Pump Company and the two knitting factories 
began also to employ negroes. The standard wage prevailed, 
and, while the unskilled work was largely given to the negroes, 
there were instances when opportunity was given for them to 
follow pursuits requiring skill. 

Housing showed every evidence of congestion. The city was 
unprepared for the unprecedented increase in population neces- 
sitated by the demands of its factories for men to produce muni- 
tions of war. The workingmen, however, were soon better pro- 
vided for than in some other cities. The Rockford Malleable 

1 The Detroit branch of the Urban League reported, for example, that a 
great percentage of its applicants for work were from Chicago. 



CHICAGO AND ITS ENVIRONS 107 

Iron Company conducted two houses for the accommodation of 
its employes and rented several smaller ones/ This company 
had recently purchased a large acreage and was considering the 
advisability of building houses for its employes, including the 
negro migrants. The Emerson and Birmingham Company and 
the Sewing Machine Company had similar plans under advise- 
ment. 

The Rockford Malleable Iron Company was the first to use 
negroes. In the fall of 1916 the first negro employes were 
brought in from Canton, Illinois, through a Mr. Robinson then 
employed by the company as a molder. There were nine 
molders in the group. At brief intervals Tuskegee sent up four, 
then five, then eight and then six men, most of whom had had 
training in machinery and molding. The total number of Tus- 
kegee boys was 32. Robinson also brought men from Metrop- 
olis, Illinois, and from Kankakee. He made a trip through 
Alabama and brought up 15 or 16. Most of these were laborers. 
Seven laborers came as a result of correspondence with a 
physician from Des Moines, Iowa. From Christiansburg, Vir- 
ginia, the only negro blacksmith came. The Urban League 
also sent up some men from Chicago. The company was so 
pleased with the men's service that they called upon the Urban 
League for more men and placed in its hands a fund for their 
railroad expenses.^ 

Negroes were promoted from time to time and were used 
in every department of the shop. One of the men was an in- 
spector. Two new machines turning out work faster than 
any other machine were turned over to the negroes. All of 
them were given steady work without being forced to lay off, 
and their wages were increased. Street car companies and offi- 
cials in Rockford have congratulated the men upon their con- 
duct. Two of the men who came up from the South were 
purchasing property. 

When the increase in negro population became noticeable, a 

1 The two large houses accommodated fifty to sixty men. One of these 
was known as the Tuskegee Club House and housed only men from 
Tuskegee Institute. 

- Johnson, Report on the Migration to Chicago. 



108 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

good deal o^ discrimination appeared in public places. The 
mayor of the city, therefore, called a conference of the Chamber 
of Commerce, of representatives from Camp Grant, hotels, skat- 
ing rinks and other public places and read the civil rights law 
to them. He gave them to understand that Rockford would 
not stand for discrimination between races. When some of 
the conferees thought they would like to have separate tables 
in the restaurants the mayor opposed them and insisted that there 
should be no such treatment. One restaurant, which displayed 
a sign, " We do not cater to colored trade," was given orders 
by the Chief of Police to take it down in fifteen minutes, when 
his deputy would arrive with instructions to carry out the law 
in case the sign was not removed. 

Waukegan, a town thirty miles northwest of Chicago, with 
a total population of about 22,000 has approximately 400 negroes, 
where two years ago there were about 275. The Wilder Tan- 
ning Company and the American Steel aijd Wire Company em- 
ployed the largest number of these negroes. These firms worked 
about 60 and 80 respectively. Smaller numbers were employed 
by the Gas Company, the Calk Mill, the Cyclone Fence Com- 
pany, the Northwestern Railroad freight house and a bed spring 
factory and several were working at the Great Lakes Naval 
Training Station. A few found employment as porters in 
barber shops and theaters. At the Wilder Tanning Company and 
the American Steel and Wire Company, opportunity was given 
negroes to do semiskilled work. The former was working 
negroes into every branch of its industry. The average daily 
wage here was about $3.^ 

1 In May, 1917, the Sherman House on Genesee Street in the heart of the 
city became a negro hotel. It has 19 bedrooms and accommodates 35 men. 
It was poorly managed and dirty. A barber shop, pool room and dining 
room were run in connection with it and were also poorly managed. The 
manager of the hotel is one of the newcomers. A rooming house and dance 
hall for negroes is operated in another section of the city. The Wilder 
Tanning Company was building a hotel for 50 single men and individual 
houses of five, six, seven and eight rooms for families. Houses for white 
workmen were to be built by the company after these were completed. 
Lawrence Wilder, president of the company, stated that the building of 
these houses was no " experiment." " They are being put up to stay." 
Hot and cold water, hot air, heat, electric lights, and shower baths will be 
in the hotel. Single rooms will rent for $1.25, double rooms $2.50 per week. 
No women will be permitted to live in the hotel. A social room will be 



CHICAGO AND ITS ENVIRONS 109 

The secretary of the Chamber of Commerce believed that 
the influx did not cause anything more than a ripple on the 
surface. He said : " I cover everything when I say that, no 
apparent increase in crime; no trouble among themselves; no 
race friction." Theaters began to discriminate, but soon ceased. 
The proprietor of the Sheridan Club stated that he took a group 
of men to one theater which had shown signs of discrimination. 
Each man was told to purchase his own ticket. The owner 
observing the scheme admitted them. Very few restaurants 
refuse to serve negroes. Only one openly segregated them to a 
particular part of the dining-room. Absolutely no trouble was 
experienced in the schools. The police commissioner sees that 
the negroes have the protection of the law. 

East Chicago, an industrial center located about twenty-five 
miles from Chicago with a population now made up in large 
part of Hungarians, Poles, Italians and negroes, had only one 
negro family in 1015. During the month of August, 1916, about 
150 negroes came and others soon followed. At present there 
are about 75 families, 35 or 40 children of school age and about 
450 men working in the industrial plants. The majority of 
these newcomers were from the rural districts of Alabama and 
Georgia, with a few from Mississippi. A large number of 
negroes, moreover, live in Indiana Harbor and in Chicago and 
work in East Chicago.^ 

Some of the people went to Indiana Harbor for church serv- 

within easy access of all occupants. No meals will be served at the hotel, 
but will be served at the plant. The houses will be one and two stories 
and can be purchased on a monthly basis. A street car line will connect 
the plant and the subdivision. 

Before the influx the Cyclone Fence Company and the Calk Mill Com- 
pany were said to have sworn never to employ negro labor. The Wilder 
Tanning Company and the American Steel and Wire Company have standing 
nivitations for negro men with references. — Johnson, Report on the Migration 
to Chicago. 

1 They were employed by the Gasselli Chemical Company, Goldsmiths 
Detinning Company, the International Lead Refining Company, the United 
States Reduction Company, the United States Refining Company, Hobson 
and Walker's Brick Yard, the Inland Steel Foundry. Interstate Mill, the 
Cudahy Soap Factory and the Republic Rolling Mill. The Hobson and 
Walker's Brick Yard employed 200 and provided houses within the yards 
for the families of the workmen. The International Lead Refining Company 
provided lodging for its men in remodeled box cars. Wages for ordinary 
labor ranged from $2.50 to $4.50 per day. This did not include the amount 



110 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

ices. During the summer of 1917, an attempt was made to 
organize a church, but it was unsuccessful and almost excited 
a racial conflict. The negroes from Alabama and Georgia com- 
plained about the wickedness of East Chicago, and declared their 
intentions of going home, " where they can sing without ap- 
pearing strange, and where they can hear somebody else pray 
besides themselves." Few racial clashes, however, have fol- 
lowed. A strike which occurred at Gasselli's Chemical Company 
was at first thought to be a protest of the foreigners against 
the 80 negroes employed there. Nothing serious developed 
from it. The only apparent dangers were in thoughtlessness 
on the part of negroes in their conduct. They were too badly 
needed in industry to be harshly treated either by the foreigners 
or their employers.^ 

In Beloit, Wisconsin, as in other cities, it was impossible to 
find out with any degree of accuracy the approximate number 
of negroes. Estimates of the number ranged from 700 to 2,000, 
whereas, before the influx, the black population was as low as 
200. The total population of Beloit is about 20,000. There 
are now two negro churches, a Baptist and an African Metho- 
dist Episcopal. The Baptist church was said to be made up 
entirely of new people. Beloit did not have a negro Baptist 

that might be made by overtime work. The brick yard employed negroes 
for unskilled work at 35 cents an hour. A few skilled negroes employed 
were receiving from $4.75 to $7 a day. 

Negroes are fairly well scattered throughout the foreign residential sec- 
tion. A small area known as " Oklahoma " or " Calumet " had perhaps 
the largest number. The houses were overcrowded, dark, insanitary, without 
privacy and generally unattractive. All of the rooms were sleepiner rooms, 
usually with two beds in a room accommodating six men. Rent was high, 
and ranged from $15 to $25 a month for four and five room flats in very 
unattractive buildings. Single lodgers paid from $1.50 to $1.75 a week. 
Restaurant rates were exorbitant and food was so high that many of the 
families bought their provisions in Chicago. 

There were no churches or in fact any wholesome social institutions in 
town. There were many flourishing saloons. There was one colored pool 
room, and one colored restaurant. On occasions, a hall belonging to the 
whites was used for dances and socials. — Johnson, Report on the Migration 
to Chicago. 

1 Following each pay day from twenty to thirty negroes left for their 
homes in the South. Some returned when their funds were about exhausted 
and worked five or six months more. Others remained at home for the 
winter. " It was expected that the brick yard would lose a very large num- 
ber on the 8th of November. On the I5th of December another large con- 
tingent leaves for the South." — Johnson, Report on the Migration to Chicago. 



CHICAGO AND ITS ENVIRONS 111 

preacher until the migration, and had no negro physicians. 
Prior to the influx there was hftle discrimination, except in 
some of the restaurants and occasionally in the theaters. One 
negro was working at the post office, and another at the railroad 
station. Aside from these, the negro men were practically all 
laborers and porters. 

As is true in most small cities, one company took the initiative 
in sending for men from the South. The Fairbanks Morse Com- 
pany was the pioneer corporation in this respect in Beloit. This 
company hires at present 200 men. Most of these came from 
Mississippi. In fact, Albany and Pontotoc, small towns in 
Mississippi, are said to have dumped their entire population in 
Beloit. A few from Memphis, Tennessee, were employed there 
but the company preferred Mississippians, and had agents at 
work in that State getting men for its plant. It was said to 
be fair in its treatment of negroes and to pay the standard 
wages. ^ 

Milwaukee was one of the ready recipients of negro migrants 
from other points in the North. Following the outbreak of the 
war, the consequent cessation of foreign immigration and the 
withdrawal of a number of aliens from the labor market to 
follow their national colors, a large demand for negro labor 
was for the first time created'. Milwaukee apparently could not 
attract voluntary migration, and the larger plants were forced 
to import some 1,200 southern negroes to man their industries. 
In 1910, the city had a negro population of 980. There are 
now in Milwaukee about 2,700 negroes of whom 1,500 are 



1 There was great congestion in housing, as the negroes were restricted 
to certain sections with homes usually kept in insanitary condition. A 
very large housing plan of the company met with objection on the part 
of the white citizens who sent in a petition to the City Council against 
building houses for negroes. The City Council said they wanted the housing 
property for park purposes. The matter was taken to court. The Council 
condemned the property but failed to sustain the belief that it was needed 
for a park. Through various methods of red tape and legal procedure 
the matter was delayed. The company then built houses on a smaller scale. 
The plans included two apartment houses that would accommodate six- 
families each. There were also in the course of erection houses for men 
with families to take the place of some improvised huts which the company 
had found necessary to use to facilitate the work of the men. — Johnson, 
Report on the Migration to Chicago. 



112 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

newcomers, not only from the South, but from the adjacent 
States of Illinois, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota/ 

This migration to Milwaukee caused a number of difficulties. 
The first difficulty to arise was in the relationship of the migrant 
to the old residents of the city. Like the newly arrived for- 
eigners they lived rather " close lives," had little contact with 
the people of the community and as a consequence were slow 
in changing their southern standards. This lack of contact 
was registered in the slight attendance in the colored churches, 
which are by far the most common medium of personal contact 
among negroes. The leading pastors and two others who have 
made unsuccessful attempts to establish churches complained 
that the newcomers, although accustomed to going to church 
in their old homes, " strayed from the fold " in the large city. 
There was also a certain unmistakable reticence on the part 
of the newcomers with respect to the negroes of longer resi- 
dence. The new arrivals were at times suspicious of the motives 
of the older residents, and resented being advised how to con- 
duct themselves. They were for the most part not in touch 
with any civic agency. The migrants, therefore, came into 
contact with the lower element. The recreations and amuse- 
ments of the newcomers were those which the social outcasts 
furnished them.^ 

Another anomaly was to be observed in the motives behind 
the migration. The most recent European immigrants, unfa- 
miliar with the character of the plants, having strong bodies 
and a disposition to work, are engaged as unskilled laborers. 
They do not, of course, remain at this level, but are continually 
pushed forward by later comers. The men who filled these 
lower positions were not the best type of foreigners. When 
the war began and this influx from Europe was stopped, it was 
for these positions that the plants were forced to seek men. 
Negroes were sought in the South, but, unfortunately, the em- 
phasis was placed on quantity and not quality. Those who were 
able to move on shortest notice, those with few responsibilities 

1 Before 1910, 114 persons had arrived: between 1911 and 1915, 72; during 
1916, 74; durng 1917, 102; and during 1918, 40 persons had arrived. 

2 Johnson, Report on the Migration to Chicago. 



CHICAGO AND ITS ENVIRONS llo 

and few interests at home, were snapped up by the labor agents. 
This blunder has also registered itself in the records of the 
city and the character of the negro migrants. This was probably 
due to the fact that little is known of Milwaukee in the South. 
Unlike Chicago, Detroit, New York and other northern cities, 
it was not a popular destination for voluntary migration. Agents 
who scoured the South for men testified that in a large number 
of cases the first question asked was whether or not Milwaukee 
was a wet town, for the southern States have prohibited the 
sale of liquor. While Chicago got advertisement in the South 
through its great mail order business, most of what was known 
of Milwaukee related to its breweries. 

The negroes here, however, had numerous industrial oppor- 
tunities. The manner in which the trades suddenly opened 
up to them made it difficult to ascertain the number of negroes 
so engaged. An intensive study of a neighborhood showed a 
much wider variety of skilled negro laborers and brought to 
light the cases of many not otherwise known. One man in 
touch with the iron workers of the city ventured the statement 
that there were perhaps 75 negroes engaged in skilled work 
in the iron and steel industries of the city. In a large number 
of other plants one or two negroes had succeeded in finding 
skilled employment. Firms known to employ negroes in the 
capacity of skilled workmen are the Plankington Packing Com- 
pany, Wehr Steel and Machine Shops, the National Malleable 
Iron Works, A. J. Lindeman-Hoverson Company and the Mil- 
waukee Coke and Gas Company. For the most part skilled 
negroes are butchers and molders.^ 

In the case of negroes from the South with trades, however, 
there arose a situation which is seldom fully appreciated. A 
man in the South may be skilled in such an independent trade 
as shoemaking, tailoring, carpentry and the like, but in a north- 
ern city with its highly specialized industrial processes and divi- 
sions of labor, he must learn over again what he thought he 
had mastered, or abandon his trade entirely and seek employ- 
ment in unskilled lines. The wages for skilled work were for 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration to Chicago. 



114 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

butchers, 55 to 64 cents an hour; for steel molders, 35 to 47 
cents an hour; for firemen, $27 per week; for chauffeurs, $15 
to $30 a week; for shoemakers, $20 a week; stationary firemen, 
$24 a week. The mass of negroes, men and women, gainfully 
employed in the city was made up of manual laborers. Vacan- 
cies for negroes in industry were made at the bottom. The 
range of occupations in unskilled work, however, was fairly 
wide. They were packing house employes, muckers, tannery 
laborers, street construction workers, dock hands and foundry 
laborers. Their wages were for foundry laborers, 323^ cents 
to 35 cents an hour; for muckers, $28 a week; for tannery 
laborers, $24 a week; dock hands, 60 cents an hour; and for 
packing house laborers, 43 cents an hour (male), and 30% cents 
an hour (female). There were also porters in stores and jan- 
itors whose weekly wages averaged between $15 and $18 per 
week. 

Several firms made strenuous efiforts to induce laborers to 
come from the South. The Pfister-Vogel Company employed a 
negro to secure them for this purpose, and made preparation 
for their lodging and board. This representative stated that 
he was responsible for the presence of about 300 negroes in 
the city. Reverend J. S. Woods of the Booker T. Washington 
social settlement, who was actively engaged in assisting the 
plants, asserted that he had placed over 400. The Albert Trostel 
Company paid transportation for nearly 100 men. 

The principal industries employing negroes with the number 
employed were about as follows :^ 

Number 
Firm Male Female 

Plankington Packing Co 78 10 

Albert Trostel Leather Co 75 30 

Faulk's Manufacturing Co 34 

Hoffman Manufacturing Co 2 

Tunnell Construction Co 10 

Alihvaukee Coke and Gas Co 38 

Pfister-Vogel Tannery 75 

A. J. Lindeman-Hoverson Co 13 

National Malleable Iron Co , 22 

Solvay Steel Castings Co 24 

Allis Chalmers 70 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration to Chicago. 



CHICAGO AND ITS ENVIRONS 115 

On December 1, 1917, the Plankington Packing Company 
employed 93 men and 27 women. The Pfister-V^ogel Company 
had only 75 men in its employ. This company, however, within 
18 months had employed 300 negroes from the South. 

Concerning the range of wages for negroes in these lines 
the data provided by these firms gave some means of informa- 
tion. 

Firms Male Female 

Plankington Packing Co. 
Faulk's Manufacturing Co, 
Hoffman Manufacturing Co 
Tunnell Construction Co. 
Albert Trostel Co 



43c to 64c an hour 30% c an hour 

35c to 47c an hour 

32Vjc an hour 

$4 a day 

40c an hour 30c an hour 



Milwaukee Coke and Gas Co. $3.67 to $4.79 a day... 

A. J. Lindeman-Hoverson Co. $3 to $5 a day 

National Malleable Iron Co. . . 35c an hour to $4 a day. 
Pfister-Vogel Tannery $22 to $24 a week 



The quality of the workingmen is of interest both to the 
employers and social workers. To get uniform data employers 
were asked the principal faults and principal merits of their 
negro workmen. To the question, " What are the principal 
faults of your negro workmen? " these answers were given: ^ 

None that predominate. 

The principal fault of negro workmen is, they are slow and very hard to 

please. 
Not good on rapid moving machinery, have not had mechanical training; 

slow ; not stable. 
Inclined to be irregular in attendance to work. 
Very unsteady. 
Leave in summertime for road work. 

To the question, " What are the principal merits of your 
negro workmen?" these answers were given: 

They are superior to foreign labor because they readily understand what 

you try to tell them. 
Loyalty, willingness, cheerfulness. 
The skilled men stick and are good workmen. 
Generally speaking they are agreeable workmen. 
Quicker, huskier, and can stand more heat than other workmen. 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration to Chicago. 



116 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

The attitude of white and black workmen toward one an- 
other in none of the plants visited presented anything like 
a serious situation. The following are answers to questions 
relating to this sentiment as returned by the important 
industries : ^ 

No feeling — no complaints — no comments. 

White and black get along well. There was a little trouble some time 
ago between a Jewish foreman and his negro workmen. All the 
negroes quit. The matter was investigated and the foreman discharged. 

Good. 

The relations are favorable, although negroes appear a bit clannish. 

Good fellowship prevails. 

Negroes do not stay long enough to get acquainted. 

Good in most cases. Very little opposition. Tliey are working as helpers 
with whites. Few objections. 

As a final effort to get the opinion of employers themselves 
concerning the best means of improving their labor, a sugges- 
tion from them on this matter was solicited. Their views are 
subjoined : ^ 

A rather broad question and one that could only be answered after con- 
siderable study. Believe the great trouble with negro labor has been 
the fact that a poor class of negroes has been employed by many. We 
have a good lot of workers now. 

Some means should be devised to get them away from their general shift- 
less ways. 

Education. 

As a negro can be very contented and happy on very little, if their living 
conditions were improved and the desire created in them to improve 
their condition, this would be a help towards encouragement in better- 
ing their social condition. In fact, we feel that anything that would 
help to better the social attention of the negro would make him a 
better workman. 

Better housing and supervision through some responsible organization. 
Some way to keep sympathetic watch over them. 

Without doubt there is an element of truth in each of these 
comments. It is unquestionably true that a large number of 
these men register by their actions instability, irregularity and 
general shiftlessness. Some of these cases are inexcusable, and 

1 Johnson, Report on the Migration to Chicago. 

2 Ibid. 



CHICAGO AND ITS ENVIRONS 117 

the only reason for their connection with the industry is the fact 
that they were brought from the South, where they were volun- 
tarily idle, by agents of employers. The importation merely 
shifted the scene of their deliberate loafing and spasmodic con- 
tact with work. 

Employers in all of the plants know that they have had 
difficulty in holding their negro labor, but do not know why. 
Most of the men willing to leave the city were unmarried men 
with few responsibilities. These are the ones who found em- 
ployment there and, being dissatisfied, quit. The highest negro 
labor turnover was in the leather factories. But for this there 
was a reason. The only employment permitted negroes there 
v^as w^et and very disagreeable beam work, and at wages not 
in excess of those paid by neighboring plants with a different 
grade of work. Inquiries among laboring men reveal reasons 
plausible indeed to the laborers themselves, which in many cases 
would have been found reasonable also by the employers. 

It is generally known that all classes of labor of all nationali- 
ties are in an unsettled state. Shifting to the higher paid in- 
dustries is common. In consequence the disagreeable and poorly 
paid ones have sufifered. The instability of negroes, especially 
in those industries that have been so hard pressed as to find 
it necessary to go South for men, is not so much a group 
characteristic as an expression of present tendencies in labor 
generally. 

Reasons of a more intimate nature advanced by the men for 
changing jobs are numerous. Among these are dissatisfaction 
with the treatment of petty white bosses, the necessity for ready 
money for the care of their families, the distance of the plants 
from the district in which the negro workmen live ^ and the 
unpleasant indoor work in certain factories. 

The social condition of negroes in Milwaukee is not alarming. 
There are indicated, however, unmistakable maladjustments 

^ A simple situation of this nature registers itself without explanation 
against the character of negroes in the records of the firms. The Pfister- 
Vogel Company had a house on Clinton Street in which lived twenty or 
more negroes. This location is eight or ten miles away from the com- 
munity in which negroes live. There are no amusements for these young 
men around Clinton Street. The cars stop running at a comparatively early 



118 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

which require immediate attention. But even these will not 
become alarming, if checked now, when preventive measures can 
be made practicable, attractive and easy. 

The neighborhoods in which negroes live have long showed 
evidence of physical and moral deterioration. The addition 
of 1,400 negroes from the South, over 70 per cent of whom 
were brought to the city by companies seeking labor, hastened 
the deterioration and gave rise to problems where only tenden- 
cies existed before. Neighborhood life is conspicuously lax 
and the spirit of the community quite naturally comports with 
the looseness and immorality of the district. Though such con- 
ditions are plainly evident, no organized influence has been 
projected to correct them. As with the neighborhood, so with 
housing, crime, delinquency, education, recreation, industry, and 
the like, the conditions which retard developmental habits must 
have constant vigilance and treatment. 

hour. If they go to the city they must either come back in a taxicab or spend 
the evening away from home. It is less expensive to spend the evening 
away. As a result they are late for work and may not report. If they 
report, they are tired and unfit for work. If they do not they are put 
down as irregular and unsteady. — Johnson, Report on the Migration to 
Chicago. 



CHAPTER XI 

The Situation at Points in the Middle West 

The most important city in this section to be affected by the 
migration was Pittsburgh, the gateway to the West. The Pitts- 
burgh district is the center of the steel industry. For this reason, 
the war caused the demand for labor to be extremely heavy there, 
Pittsburgh was one of the centers to which the greatest number 
of negroes went. Before the migration, a considerable number 
of negroes were employed there. In 1900, the negro population 
of Allegheny county, in which Pittsburgh is situated, was 27,753. 
In 1910 it was 34,217. When the migration began, the county 
had about 38,000 negroes. Investigations and estimates indicate 
that, at the end of 1917, the negro population of the county had 
increased to almost 66,000. Epstein in his survey of The Negro 
Migrant in Pittsburgh said : ^ 

From a canvass of twenty typical industries in the Pittsburgh district, 
it was found that there were 2,550 negroes employed in 1915, and 8,325 in 
1917, an increase of 5,775 or 227 per cent. It was impossible to obtain labor 
data from more than approximately sixty per cent of the negro employing 
concerns, but it is fair to assume that the same ratio of increase holds 
true of the remaining forty per cent. On this basis the number of negroes 
now employed in the district may be placed at 14,000. This means that 
there are about 9,750 more negroes working in the district today than there 
were in 1915, an addition due to the migration from the South. 

According to Epstein, the migration had been going on for 
little longer than one year. Ninety-three per cent of those 
who gave the time of residence in Pittsburgh had been there 
less than one year. More than eighty per cent of the single 
men interviewed had been there less than six months. In the 
number who had been there for the longest period, married 
men predominated, showing the tendency of this class to become 

^Epstein, The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh, p. 7. 

119 



120 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

permanent residents. This fact becoming evident, some in- 
dustrial concerns bringing men from the South, having learned 
from bitter experience that the mere delivery of negroes from 
a southern city did not guarantee a sufficient supply of labor, 
made an effort to secure married men only, and even to investi- 
gate them prior to their coming. Differences in recruiting 
methods may also explain why some employers and labor agents 
hold a very optimistic view of the negro as a worker, while 
others despair of him. The reason why Pittsburgh has been 
unable to secure a stable labor force is doubdess realized by 
the local manufacturers. Married negroes come to the North 
to stay. They desire to have their families with them, and 
if they are not accompanied North by their wives and children 
they plan to have them follow at the earliest possible date. 

It would appear that the stability of the labor supply de- 
pended to a very large extent upon the housing conditions. It 
was found that in many instances men who had families went 
to other cities where they hoped to find better accommodations. 
The Pittsburgh manufacturer will never keep an efficient labor 
supply of negroes until he learns to compete with the employers 
of other cities in a housing program as well as in wages. The 
negro migration in Pittsburgh, however, did not cause a dis- 
placement of white laborers. Every man was needed, as there 
were more jobs than men to fill them. Pittsburgh's industrial 
life was for a time dependent upon the negro labor supply, and 
the city has not received a sufficient supply of negroes, and cer- 
tainly not so many as smaller industrial towns, although the 
railroads and a few of the industrial concerns of the locality 
have had labor agents in the South. Yet, in spite of the diffi- 
culties because of the obstructive tactics adopted in certain 
southern communities to prevent the negro exodus, they have 
nevertheless succeeded in bringing several thousand negroes into 
this district. " One company, for instance," says Epstein, 
"which imported about a thousand men within the past year, 
had only about three hundred of these working at the time of 
the investigator's visit in July, 1917. One railroad, which is 
said to have brought about fourteen thousand people to the 



THE SITUATION AT POINTS IN THE MIDDLE WEST 121 

North within the last twelve months, has been able to keep an 
average of only eighteen hundred at work." These companies, 
however, have failed to hold the newcomers. 

The problems created by this sudden increase of Pittsburgh's 
population were very grave. In the early part of 1917, plans 
were formulated to make a social survey of the migrants in 
Pittsburgh. Cooperating in this survey were the University 
of Pittsburgh, the Associated Charities, the Social Service Com- 
mission of the Churches of Christ and the National League on 
Urban Conditions among Negroes. In March, 1917, the direc- 
tor of the Department of Public Health, instructed the sanitary 
inspectors to pay special attention to all premises occupied by 
the *' newcomers." Another step in this direction was the es- 
tablishment in that city of a branch of the National League 
on Urban Conditions among Negroes. 

A survey made in 1917 showed that the housing situation was 
the most serious aspect of the migrants' social problems, and 
that in order to have improvements in other lines housing con- 
ditions must be made better. Because of the high cost of 
materials and labor incident to the war, because the taxation 
system still does not encourage improvements and because of 
investment attractions other than in realty, few houses had 
been built and practically no improvements had been made. This 
was most strikingly apparent in the poorer sections of the city. 
In the negro sections, for instance, there had been almost no 
houses added and few vacated by whites within the previous 
two years. The addition, therefore, of thousands of negroes 
just arrived from southern States meant not only the creation 
of new negro quarters and the dispersion of negroes through- 
out the city, but also the utmost utilization of every place in 
the negro sections capable of being transformed into habitations. 
Attics and cellars, storerooms and basements, churches, sheds 
and warehouses had to be employed for the accommodation 
of these newcomers. Whenever a negro had space which he 
could possibly spare, it was converted into a sleeping place; as 
many beds as possible were crowded into it, and the maximum 
number of men per bed were lodged. Either because their own 



122 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

rents were high or because they were unable to withstand the 
temptation of the sudden, and, for all they knew, temporary 
harvest, or perhaps because of the altruistic desire to assist their 
race fellows, a majority of the negroes in Pittsburgh converted 
their homes into lodging houses. 

Because rooms were hard to come by the lodgers were not disposed to 
complain about the living conditions or the prices charged. They were only 
too glad to secure a place where they could share a half or at least a part 
of an unclaimed bed. It was no easy task to find room for a family, as 
most boarding houses would accept only single men, and refused to admit 
women and children. Many a man, who with his family occupied only 
one or two rooms, made place for a friend or former townsman and his 
family. In many instances this was done from unselfish motives and in 
a humane spirit. ^ 

How the negroes are employed will throw more light on their 
situation. The Epstein investigation showed that 

Ninety-five per cent of the migrants who stated their occupations were 
doing unskilled labor, in the steel mills, the building trades, on the railroads, 
or acting as servants, porters, janitors, cooks and cleaners. Only twenty, or 
four per cent out of 493 migrants whose occupations were ascertained, were 
doing what may be called semiskilled or skilled work, as puddlers, mold- 
setters, painters and carpenters. On the other hand, in the South 59 out 
of 529 claimed to have been engaged in skilled labor, while a large number 
were rural workers. 

The following table shows the occupations of migrants in Pitts- 
burgh as compared with statements of occupations in the South: 

Occupations In Pittsburgh % In South % 

Common laborer 468 95 286 54 

Skilled or semiskilled 20 4 59 U 

Farmer 81 15 

Miner 36 7 

Sawmill workers 9 2 

Ran own farm or father's farm 22 5 

Ran farm on crop sharing basis ^^ 6 

Other occupations 5 1 

It seems clear that most of the migrants were engaged in 
unskilled labor. The reason given by the manufacturers in 

1 Epstein, The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh, pp. 7-8. 



THE SITUATION AT POINTS IN THE MIDDLE WEST 123 

accounting for this disparity were that the migrants are ineffi- 
cient and unstable, and that the opposition to them on the part 
of the white labor prohibits their use on skilled jobs/ Ninety- 
five per cent of the negro workers in the steel mills were unskilled 
laborers. " In the bigger plants," says the investigator, " where 
many hundreds of negroes are employed, almost one hundred 
per cent are doing common labor, while in the smaller plants, 
a few might be found doing labor which required some skill." 
Epstein believes that this idea is often due to the prejudice of 
the heads of departments and other labor employers. A sym- 
pathetic superintendent of one of the large steel plants said 
that in many instances it was the superintendents and managers 
themselves who are not alive to their own advantage, and so 
oppose the negroes in doing the better classes of work. The 
same superintendent said that he had employed negroes for 
many years; that a number of them had been connected with 
his company for several years; that they are just as efficient 
as the white people. More than half of the twenty-five negroes 
in his plant were doing semiskilled and even skilled work. He 
had one or two negro foremen over negro gangs, and cited 
an instance of a black man drawing $114 in his last two weeks' 
pay. This claim was supported by a very intelligent negro who 
was stopped a few blocks away from the plant and questioned 
as to the conditions there. While admitting everything that 
the superintendent said, and stating that there is now absolute 
free opportunity for negroes in that plant, the man asserted 
that these conditions have obtained within the last year." 

It was found that in the Pittsburgh district the great mass 
of workers get higher wages than in the places from which 

1 The latter objection is illustrated by the case of the white bargemen of 
a big steel company who wanted to walk out because black workers were 
introduced among them, and who were only appeased by the provision of 
separate quarters for the negroes. While there is an undeniable hostility 
to negroes on the part of a few white workers, the objection is frequently 
exaggerated by prejudiced gang bosses. 

2 The sarne superintendent told of an episode illustrating the amicable 
relations existing in his shop between white and black workers. He related 
that a gang of workers had come to him with certain complaints and the 
threat of a walkout. When their grievances had been satisfactorily adjusted, 
they pointed to the lonely black man in their group and said that they were 
not ready to go back unless their negro fellow worker was satisfied. 



124 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

they come. Fifty-six per cent received less than $2 a day in 
the South, while only five per cent received such wages in Pitts- 
burgh. However, the number of those who said they received 
high wages in the South is greater than the number of those 
receiving them there. Fifteen per cent said they received more 
than $3.60 a day at home, while only five per cent said they 
received more than that rate for twelve hours' work there. 
Sixty-seven per cent of the 453 persons stating their earnings 
here, earn less than $3 a day. Twenty-eight per cent earn from 
$3 to $3.60 a day, while only five per cent earn more than 
$3.60 a day. The average working day for both Pittsburgh 
and the South is ten and four-tenths hours. The average wage 
is $2.85 here; in the South it amounted to $2.15. It may be 
interesting to point out that the number of married men who 
work longer hours and receive more money is proportionately 
greater than that of the single men, who have not " given hostage 
to fortune." 

Judging from what has been said about the habits of living 
among the negro migrants in Pittsburgh, they are of the best 
class of their race. Chief among those to be mentioned is their 
tendency to abstain from the use of intoxicants although it has 
often been said that the cause of the migration from the South 
was due to the desire of negroes in prohibition States to go 
where they may make free use of whisky. In this city it was 
observed that out of 470 persons who answered questions with 
reference to whether or not they imbibed only 210 of them 
said that they drank, while 267 made no use of intoxicants 
at all. It was also observed that among those who have families, 
the percentage of those addicted to drink is much smaller than 
that of others who are single or left their families in the South. 
This, no doubt, accounts for the orderly conduct of these negroes 
who, according to statistics, have not experienced a wave of 
crime. The records of the courts show numerous small offenses 
charged to the account of negroes, but these usually result from 
temptations and snares set by institutions of vice which are 
winked at by the community. 

These negroes, on the whole, are thrifty and will eventually 



THE SITUATION AT POINTS IN THE MIDDLE WEST 125 

attach themselves permanently to the community through the 
acquisition of desirable property and elevation to positions of 
trust in the industries where they are employed. Evidences of 
the lazy and shiftless and the immoral are not frequent, because 
of a sort of spirit of thrift pervading the whole group. Many 
of the families have savings accounts in banks, and practically 
all of the married men separated from their families in the 
South send a large portion of their earnings from time to time. 
Money order receipts and stubs of checks examined show that 
these remittances to distant families range from between $5 to 
$10 a week. Others have seen fit to divert their income to 
objects more enterprising. They are educating their children, 
purchasing homes and establishing businesses to minister to the 
needs of their own peculiar group. 

In view of the desirability of most migrants in this city, 
several persons have seen fit to make a comparison of the negro 
and foreign labor, with a view to determining whether or not 
the employment of negroes in the North will be permanent, as 
they may easily be displaced by the foreigners immigrating into 
this country in the future. The consensus of opinion is that 
the blacks are profitable laborers, but that their efficiency must 
be decidedly increased to compete with that of the white workers. 
Some of the faults observed are that they are as yet unadapted 
to the " heavy and pace-set labor in the steel mills." Accustomed 
to the comparatively easy going plantation and farm work of 
the South, it will take some time for these migrants to find 
themselves. " They can not even be persuaded to wait until 
pay day, and they like to get money in advance, following the 
habit that they acquired from the southern credit system. It 
is often secured on very flimsy pretexts and spent immediately 
in the saloons and similar places." Yet the very persons who 
make this estimate of the negro laborer say that the negroes 
born in the North or who have been in the North some time 
are as efficient as the whites, and that because of their knowledge 
of the language and the ways of this country, they are often 
much better than the foreign laborers who understand neither. 

The principal industrial centers in Ohio to which the migrants 



126 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

went were Cincinnati, Middletown, Akron, Dayton, Springfield. 
Youngstown, Columbus and Cleveland. The city which took 
the lead in endeavoring to handle the migration problem was 
Cleveland. This was due to a considerable extent to the fact 
that the housing conditions in Cleveland were espec.ally bad. 
Investigations made in tlie summer of 1917 by the Chamber 
of Commerce showed that housing conditions never were so 
in need of remedying as they were at that time. The influx 
of negroes, thousands of whom were living in box cars on 
railway sidings, was only one feature of the problem, investi- 
gators say. In nearly every part of the city, and especially 
in the vicinity of large manufacturing plants, workers are herded 
together, paying as much as $8 a week for a single room for 
a whole family.^ 

The Cleveland Welfare Federation appointed a committee 
composed of representatives of both races, to study problems 
made acute in Cleveland by the recent incoming of probably 
10,000 negroes from the South. At the first meeting of this 
committee, August 3, 1917, the city welfare department an- 
nounced that 61 per cent of the men in the workhouse at 
Warrensville were negroes and that of 100 women 66 were 
negroes. The normal proportion of negroes in the workhouse 
before the migration began was about 10 per cent, he said. 
This had mounted rapidly in the last year. It was brought 
out that the cause of this increase lay in housing congestion, 
lack of opportunities for recreation and because negro migrants 
are ignorant of the city's customs, laws and ordinances. A sub- 
committee was therefore appointed to look into this matter, 
as well as into that of perils surrounding newly arrived negro 
girls. A subcommittee was also appointed to study housing 
congestion and health problems. The secretary of the Cleveland 
Real Estate Board reiterated that there were 10,000 houses, 
renting at $25 and under, needed at the present time for both 
negro and white residents, and that, owing to labor difficulties 
and the high price of building materials, very little had been 
done to relieve the situation. He stated that a partial solution 

'^Cleveland News, August 11, 1917. 



THE SITUATION AT POINTS IN THE MIDDLE WEST 127 

could be found in inducing both negro and white people who 
could afford to build or buy houses to do so, and thus free more 
houses for those who can not afford to buy them. It was 
asserted that unless something should be done before cold weather 
the housing problem would become acute/ To assist in meeting 
the house shortage a group of prominent negroes organized 
" The Realty Housing and Investment Company." ^ 

The negro churches and other organizations cooperated in 
the effort to solve the problem of caring for the newly arrived 
negroes. In December. 1917, all the organizations and agencies 
w^orking to aid the migrants were united in the Negro Welfare 
Association of Cleveland.^ William R. Connors, a negro social 
worker, was employed as executive secretary of the new organi- 
zation, beginning January 1, and offices were opened in the Phyl- 
lis Wheatley Association Building at East 40th Street and Cen- 
tral Avenue. The budget for the first year was estimated at 
about $5,000. 

The organization acted as a clearing house for all the problems 
confronting the negro people there and cooperated with other 
agencies in the following activities : relief work, nursing service, 
legal aid, employment, promoting thrift, providing recreation 
through the public schools and otherwise, studying the delin- 
quency problem, caring for discharged prisoners in cooperation 
with the workhouse and promoting community singing. It in- 
vestigated the social conditions among negroes, with a view to 
establishing those agencies which are needed, or to point out 
the needs to the organization already established. It endeavored 
to educate the negro public to a full appreciation of the possi- 

1 Cleveland Plain Dealer, August 4, 1917. 

- An advertisement of this company in the Cleveland Advocate was as 
follows : 

Cleveland is short 10.000 houses : 

The city on Lake Erie is face to face with the problem of "Housing the 
People!" We have been on the job day in and day out and are pleased to 
announce that we have just played a master stroke. 

You may ask what is it? We will answer. 

We have just secured the group of seven apartment houses which are 
rapidly nearing completion on East 40th Street between Central and Scoville 
Avenues. Three and four room suites with bath, hot water, electric lights, 
gas ranges, heating appliances, refrigerators, Murphy in-a-dor beds. Laundry 
just waiting to be occupied. All for colored people. 

3 Cleveland Town Topics, December 22, 1917. 



128 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

bilities of a definite social program and to its responsibility for 
seeing that it is carried out. 

In June, 191G, a call was issued for a statewide conference 
of representative white and colored people to be held at the 
capital of the State, Columbus, on July 12, 1916, to take steps 
toward caring for the 100,000 negro migrants believed to have 
remained in Ohio. Among those who signed the call were J. 
Walter Wills, President of Cleveland Association of Colored 
Men; Reverend H. C. Bailey, President of National Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Colored People; W. S. Scar- 
borough, President of Wilberforce University; Charles Johnson, 
Superintendent of Champion Chemical Company, Springfield, 
and Edward T. Banks, member of Charter Commission, Dayton.^ 
The mayors of Ohio cities named delegates to the conference. 
At this conference the Ohio Federation for the Uplift of the 
Colored People was formed, and an extensive program designed 
to improve economic and social conditions was outlined. 
Branches of the Federation were soon established at Akron, 
Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, Piqua, Steubenville, 
Youngstown and other points. 

Reports showing labor, housing, general welfare and health 
conditions among the negroes throughout the State were com- 
piled and distributed broadcast. It was also decided to send 
lecturers through Ohio cities to visit negro centers for the 
purpose of instilling within the race a desire for better living 
conditions. A campaign was waged also to bring about greater 
censorship of motion pictures. Efforts were made to have the 
State Council of National Defense and the State and City Labor 
Bureaus actively interest themselves in the problem of negro 
employment.^ 

The State of Ohio also undertook an investigation of the 
migration movement. Reports to the Ohio branch, Council 
of National Defense, indicated a very serious situation resulting 
from the exodus of negroes. An investigation at direction of 
Governor Cox was conducted by the Council and State Depart- 

"^ Dayton News, July 7, 1917. 

- Cincinnati Enquirer, September 12, 1917 



THE SITUATION AT POINTS IN THE MIDDLE WEST 129 

ment, to get as much information as possible concerning the 
unprecedented migration. The first work was a study of health 
conditions in several cities by the State Department of Health, 
which took immediate steps to correct evils. The negroes who 
were coming into the State were being crowded into the negro 
sections of the various cities in such a way that the health of 
these communities in many cases was being seriously threatened. 
The Council of National Defense asked the Ohio branch for 
information on the migration, particularly to learn if it had 
been artificially stimulated and accelerated by agencies that have 
paid so many dollars a head for every negro from the South.^ 

Detroit, because of its importance as an industrial center, 
was one of the places to which the largest number of migrants 
to Michigan went. The negro population of the city in 1910 
was 5,741. It is now estimated that the city has between 25,000 
and 35,000 blacks, three-fourths or more of whom have come 
there during the past two years. As elsewhere, the majority 
of the negroes are in unskilled occupations. There is, however, 
a considerable number of skilled and semiskilled workers. De- 
troit was formerly a city where the negro was restricted to 
a very few lines of work. 

The wartime pressing needs of the industrial enterprises have 
caused the barriers to be removed. The available evidence that 
Detroit has removed the barriers from the employment of negroes 
in many lines is considerable. There were calls for 336 truckers, 
160 molders, 109 machinists, 45 core makers and for a number 
of other miscellaneous skilled and semiskilled men. Most of 
the women were wanted in domestic and personal service in 
private homes, but 32 calls came from a garment factory, 18 
from a cigar factory and 19 for ushers in a theater. 

Their wages were exceptionally high according to Dr. George 
E. Haynes' intensive study of the returns of 407 families. One 
received between $30 and $39 a month; three received between 
$40 and $49, six received between $60 and $69; 20 received 
between $70 and $79; 96 received between $80 and $89; 6 re- 
ceived between $90 and $99 ; 27 received between $100 and $119; 

1 Columbus Dispatch, August 1. 1917. 



130 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

21 received between $120 and $129, and 4 received $140 or 
more a month. There was a man working at $G.30 a day. 
The number of days they were employed a month could not 
be ascertained. There were 161 men whose monthly wages 
were doubtful or unknown, two men were the owners of a busi- 
ness and five were unemployed. Of the 45 women who were 
the heads of families, 13 were doing day's work at $2 a day 
and one at $2.50 a day, but the number of days they were 
employed could not be ascertained and so the monthly wages 
could not be calculated. There were two women earning be- 
tween $40 and $49 a month and three earning between $70 
and $79 a month. The monthly wages of 26 were doubtful 
or unknown. " As far as these figures are typical of the wages 
of negro workmen in Detroit," says Dr. Haynes, " they show 
that the prevailing wages of the men are from about $70 to 
$119 a month; for, 159 of the 194 men whose wages were 
ascertained were receiving wages ranging between these amounts. 
The prevailing wage for women is about that of those doing 
day work, $2 a day." ^ 

In Detroit, as in other places, there is conflict of opinion as 
to the value of the negro as a laborer. The survey of the 
mierrants there showed that there were diverse views about the 
suitability of negro labor. Mr. Charles M. Culver, General 
Manager of the Detroit Employers Association, thought some 
employers were highly pleased with negro workmen and some 
were not. He said : 

There are two lines of adverse opinion about the neg-o as a workman; 
first, nine-tenths of the complaints of employers are that he is too slow. 
He does not make the speed that the routine of efficient industry demands. 
He is lacking in the regularity demanded by routine of industry day by 
day. Second, the negro has been observed to be disinclined to work out- 
of-doors when the cold weather comes. Employers have discussed this 
and have not found the negro satisfactory on this point. Unless the negroes 
overcome this practice employers will turn to other sources of supply when 
their present extreme needs are past. Employers must have a labor supply 
upon which they can depend at all seasons — laborers who will work out-of- 
doors winter as well as summer. 

1 Haynes, Survey of the Migrants in Detroit. 



THE SITUATION AT POINTS IN THE MIDDLE WEST 131 

Speaking of the colored women employed in the manufacture 
of garments by the KroHck Company, Mr. Cohen, the super- 
intendent, said his greatest difficulty was in overcoming the 
timidity of the girls and in inducing them to believe they can 
become successful operators and earn good wages. 

The peculiar situation caused by the sudden increase of the 
city's negro population was met by organized efforts directed, 
in the main, by the local branch of the National League on 
Urban Conditions among Negroes, which here also took the 
lead in helping the migrants adjust themselves.^ Among the 
important things done by the league were the establishing of a 
vocational bureau, a bureau of investigation and information re- 
garding houses, and a committee on recreation; the inaugurating 
of a ten cent " newcomers " community dance, which was held 
every Tuesday evening in a public school in the heart of the 
negro district; the development of athletic features for the im- 
migrants, and the organization of a branch of " Camp Fire 
Girls." The league induced one of the largest foundries to 
build low-priced homes for its negro employes near the plant. 
It also somewhat relieved the housing problem by the purchase 
of leases from the proprietresses of a number of disorderly 
houses which were closed by the police. In each case the 
league persuaded some manufacturer to take over the lease, and 
in this way a large number of negro families were accommo- 
dated. It also kept a list of vacant houses and was surprised 
to find how many of them were not listed by commercial real 
estate agents. 

The league persuaded the police commissioner to appoint a 
special officer, selected by the league especially for the new- 
comers. It is his duty to mingle with crowds on the streets 
where the newcomers congregate and urge them not to make a 
nuisance of themselves by blocking sidewalks, boisterous be- 



^ The Urban League is maintained by the Associated Charities and private 
individuals to study Detroit's negro problem and improve the condition of 
the city's negroes. Forrester B. Washington is director in charge of the 
league. The organization will aim to direct negro sentiment and support 
along lines of best interests for Detroit. — Detroit News, November 6, 1916. 



132 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

havior and the like. He was also provided with cards direct- 
ing newcomers to the office of the league when in need of em- 
ployment. The league itself kept a close watch on the negro 
underworld of Detroit and immediately apprised the police when 

Jives were developed especially to prey on the immigrant. 
The Board of Commerce cooperated in a movement for the 
investigation and improvement of working conditions of negro 
employes in the various manufacturing plants in Detroit. The 
Board of Health gave considerable assistance in obtaining better 
and more sanitary housing conditions. The aid of several 
mothers' clubs among the colored women was enlisted to instruct 
immigrant mothers in the proper diet and clothing for children 
in a northern climate. From the outset, the aim was not only 
to put each migrant in a decent home but also to connect him 
with some church. Many times the churches reciprocated with 
considerable material as well as spiritual assistance. 

Valued cooperation was given by the Young Negroes' Progres- 
sive Association, a body of thirty-four young colored men, 
most of whom attended the various schools and colleges about 
Detroit. They have been the finest possible agents in the de- 
velopment of all the different activities. In the adjustment 
of the negro, a definite place must be given to the development 
of industrial efficiency. In pursuance of this object the league, 
with the assistance of the Progressive Association, carried on 
a movement.^ Representatives of the two organizations visit 
the various factories where large numbers of negroes are em- 
ployed and talk to them during the noon hour on the necessity 
of creating the best possible impression at the present time so 



1 Two surveys of the migrants in Detroit were made. One was under the 
auspices of the negro committee of the Home Missions' Council of the 
Churches of Christ in America and was pubHshed under the title, " Negro 
Newcomers in Detroit." This survey investigated industrial opportunities, 
housing and recreation facilities, and the work which the churches were 
doing and should do for Detroit's newcomers. 

The Church Extension Committee of the Detroit Presbytery made a survey 
of the negro problem in Detroit. This survey showed that the negro popula- 
tion of the city has grown from 5,000 in 1910 to 21,000 in 1917. The negro 
churches of the city are utterly inadequate to take care of the religious needs 
of the race here, it was shown. 



THE SITUATION AT POINTS IN THE MIDDLE WEST 133 

that they may be certain of retaining their jobs in the future. 
At the same time, the speakers circulate these cards : 

WHY HE FAILED 

He watched the clock. 
He was always behindhand. 
He asked too many questions. 
He wasn't ready for the next step. 
He did not put his heart in his work. 
He learned nothing from his blunders. 
He was contented to be a second-rater. 

He didn't learn that the best part of his salary was not in his pay envelope. 

— Success. 



CHAPTER XII 
The Situation at Points in the East 

No less conspicuous as attractions to the negroes of the 
South were the various industries of the State of Pennsylvania. 
Although not so closely connected with the Black Belt of the 
South as are so many of the industrial centers of the West, 
Pennsylvania nevertheless was sought by many of these migrants 
because of the long accepted theory that this commonwealth 
maintains a favorable attitude toward persons of color. It drew 
upon this population too because of the very urgent need for 
workers in its numerous industries during the labor crisis result- 
ing from the falling off of the foreign immigration. When, 
moreover, manufacturing establishments of the State multiplied 
as elsewhere because of the demand for the manufacture of 
munitions of war, this need became more urgent than ever. 

According to the census of 1910, the State of Pennsylvania 
had 193,919 inhabitants of negro blood, 84,459 of whom lived 
in the city of Philadelphia. During the recent rush to that 
commonwealth, however, investigators are now of the opinion 
that the negro population of that State is hardly less than 
300,000. These migrants were, of course, not all settled in 
the city of Philadelphia. Here we see another example of a 
rerouting point, a place where the migration broke bulk, scat- 
tering itself into the various industrial communities desiring 
labor. Among the other cities and towns receiving this popu- 
lation were practically all of those within a radius of about 
one hundred miles of Philadelphia, such as Lancaster, Potts- 
ville, York, Altoona, Harrisburg and certain other towns lying 
without the State, as in the case of Wilmington, Delaware, a 
site of a large munitions plant. In some cases the negro pop- 
ulation in these towns increased more than 100 per cent in a few 
days. 

134 



THE SITUATION AT POINTS IN THE EAST 135 

The chief factors in the bringing in of these negroes from 
the South were the leading railroads like the Erie and Pennsyl- 
vania. During the shortage of labor, these corporations found 
it impossible to keep their systems in repair. In this situation, 
they, like the smaller concerns further west, sent labor agents 
to the Soutli to induce negroes to supply this demand. Un- 
fortunately, however, so many of the negroes who had their 
transportation paid by these firms counted it more profitable to 
leave their employ immediately after arriving, because of the 
unusually high wages offered by smaller industries in just as 
urgent need of labor. Instead of supplying their own de- 
mand, therefore, the railroads were benefiting their neigh- 
bors. 

A better idea as to the extent of the congestion made possible 
by this influx of newcomers may be obtained from the comments 
of observers in that section. Traveling men tell us of the 
crowded houses and congested streets which marked the places 
wherever these migrants stopped. Housing facilities being in- 
adequate, temporary structures were quickly built and when 
these did not suffice, in the case of railroads, ordinary tents 
and box cars were used to shelter the new laborers. Owing 
to these unsatisfactory conditions and the inability of employers 
to ameliorate them, the migration was to some extent discour- 
aged, and in a few cases a number of the migrants returned 
to their homes in the South, so that the number that actually 
came into the State is much less than it would have been, had 
it been possible to receive and adequately accommodate the 
negroes in their new homes. 

In Philadelphia the situation at first became unusually critical. 
Being closer to the Southland than most of the large cities 
of the country, the people of Philadelphia are much more preju- 
diced against the negro than those in some other northern cities. 
It was necessary, therefore, upon their arrival in that city for 
them to crowd into the district largely restricted to negroes, 
giving rise to such unhappy conditions as to jeopardize the peace 
and health of the community. Numbers of these migrants died 
from exposure during the first winter, and others who died 



136 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

because of their inability to stand the northern climate made 
the situation seem unusually alarming. It was necessary, there- 
fore, to organize social workers to minister to the peculiar needs 
of these newcomers. Appeals were made in their behalf and a 
number of prominent citizens felt that it was necessary to urge 
them to remain in the South. 

The solution of this problem was rendered a little more 
difficult for the reason that here, as in many other centers in 
the North, the newcomers were not welcomed by their own 
race. Philadelphia had for years been pointed to as having a 
respectable, thrifty and prosperous colored population, enjoying 
the good will and the cooperation of the best white people in 
the community. These northern negroes felt then that the com- 
ing of their brethren in the rough did them a decided injury 
in giving rise to a race problem in a northern community where 
it had not before figured. This unusual influx of other members 
of the race greatly stimulated that tendency to segregate negro 
children in the schools, to the deep regret of the older citizens 
of Philadelphia. Other social privileges as in theaters, churches 
and the like, formerly allowed the negro citizens of that city, 
tended gradually to be withdrawn. 

The negro migrants were not altogether innocent. Many 
of them used their liberty in their northern home as a stum- 
bling block. Receiving there such high wages which they could 
not judiciously spend, the unwise of their group used this un- 
usually large income to their own detriment and to that of the 
community. It was indeed difficult to restrain a poor man 
who never had had a few dollars, when just arrived from a 
section of the country where he had not only been poor but 
restricted even in expending what income he received. Many 
of them received $6, $7 and in a few cases $8 to $10 a day. 
They frequented saloons and dens of vice, thereby increas- 
ing the number of police court cases and greatly staining the 
record of the negroes in that city. A number of fracases, there- 
fore, broke out from time to time, growing in intensity in 
keeping with the condition to which the community, unaccus- 
tomed to negro neighbors, saw fit to manifest its displeasure. 



THE SITUATION AT POINTS IN THE EAST 137 

This finally culminated in the recent riots in Philadelphia in 
which a number of blacks and whites were killed. 

Feeling that they did not have the support of the officers 
of the law, the negroes of the city organized a Colored Pro- 
tective Association and raised a fund for the prosecution of 
policemen and others who might aid mobs. The method of 
strengthening itself is to organize the churches of the city with 
a view to securing the cooperation of every negro there. To 
advance this work, a large sum has been raised. Other efforts 
of this sort in behalf of the negroes in Philadelphia have been 
made by the National Association for the Advancement of 
Colored People and the Armstrong Association in cooperation 
with the National League on Urban Conditions among Negroes. 

Social workers in general soon found it necessary to address 
themselves to the task of readjusting these migrants.^ The 
Philadelphia Academy of Medicine, composed of negro physi- 
cians, dentists and druggists, put into effect measures calculated 
to meet requirements for housing, sanitation, medical attention 
and education. Systematic medical inspections were given, and 
projects for the erection of houses and the adaptation of ex- 
isting buildings for lodgings are under way. Eighty negro 
physicians of the city collected information which took the 
form of a weekly report of the Bureau of Health. Real estate 
dealers were asked to submit lists of every house immediately 
available for the relief of the overcrowded buildings then occu- 
pied by the negroes and to provide hundreds of new ones, cheaply 
but substantially constructed. Stereopticon lectures and talks 
were given on an increasing scale in all the negro churches 
telling the new arrivals how to care for themselves in the Phil- 
adelphia climate, how to avoid colds, which lead to pneumonia 
and tuberculosis, the two most common diseases among them, 
and other useful information in general. 

The Interdenominational Ministerial Union of Philadelphia, 
embracing all the negro ministers of the city, drew up certain 
resolutions setting forth their views relative to the migration 
and making some suggestions concerning the situation in Phila- 

iThe Philadelphia North American, February 2, 1917. 



138 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

delphia. They pledged themselves to look after the comfort 
of the migrants in every way possible, urged them to join the 
churches and other organizations for improvement, and send 
their children to the schools, and to utilize the libraries, night 
schools and other agencies of culture which were denied them 
in the South. These ministers urged them also to work regu- 
larly, and give their best services to their employers regardless 
of pay, remembering always that the race is on trial in them ; 
that they save their money, and purchase homes and become 
a part of the substantial citizenry as soon as possible.^ 

A Negro Migration Committee was formed, composed of 
eight workers from social agencies and charitable societies, to 
provide suitable housing for negro famihes arriving in this city 
and to aid them in getting work. Each member of the com- 
mittee is to work through the organization he represents and 
be responsible for one specific phase of the problem." 

Notwithstanding the efforts that were made to improve the 
housing conditions, the situation in this respect continued to 
grow worse. In December of 1917, representatives of the vari- 
ous social agencies and of the corporations employing large 
numbers of negroes met in a conference on the housing situation, 
" All the questions involved in the reasons for the colored people 
coming north and the problem of housing and caring for them 
were seriously discussed." 

Some representatives of the corporations asserted that the men were not 
reliable and dependable, going from place to place and only working a few 
days in each week. The social service workers stated that the reason for 
this is that there are not a sufficient number of houses in which to take care 
of the men and their families, and that the districts in which they lived 
were shamefully crowded. According to these workers the only way in which 
the men can be made satisfied is by providing more homes for them in sanitary 
and wholesome quarters. After thoroughly considering the problem a per- 
manent committee was appointed to deal with the problem in all its aspects.^ 

One of the most effective agencies for dealing with the situa- 
tion created by thousands of negroes migrating north was the 

1 Resolutions of the Interdenominational Union. 
^Philadelphia Inquirer, March 2, 1917. 
3 The Living Church, December 22, 1917. 



THE SITUATION AT POINTS IN THE EAST 139 

Armstrong Association. This association gave special atten- 
tion to stabilizing negro labor and to improving the housing 
conditions. The association brought before several corporations 
conditions of housing and recreation which would enable them 
to retain their workers. They provided a negro welfare worker 
for the American International Shipbuilding Company, to attend 
to the stabilizing of negro labor. The association is perfecting 
plans for better housing of negro workers and the providing 
of recreation centers, such as are now enjoyed in virtually every 
city by the white workers. The association obtained the coopera- 
tion of a number of large industrial firms and corporations in 
this city, to aid it in the employment of competent negro welfare 
workers to help adjust existing conditions, making for greater 
efficiency and reliability among the negro race. 

The demand for labor by the many industrial plants located 
in New Jersey caused that State to get a very large proportion 
of the negro migrants and as a result to have, in acute form, 
the problem of housing conditions and the other problems in- 
cident to a large number of migrants being within her borders. 
To assist in caring for the situation a Negro Welfare League 
was organized with branches at various points in the State. 

Writing on the situation in New Jersey, a contributor of The 
Survey, for February 17, 1917, states: 

t 

The native negro residents of the city and suburban towns have been kind 
and generous in helping the southern stranger. They have collected money 
to send numbers back home, and when the bitter cold weather began they 
collected and distributed thousands of garments. Resident negroes have also 
taken hundreds of newcomers into their own homes until rooms could be 
found for them. But, while different churches and kind hearted people, 
had been most active in helping individually, there was no concerted move- 
ment to bring all these forces together until the organization of the Negro 
Welfare League of New Jersey. Industries of New Jersey have utterly 
failed to provide the housing which would enable their negro help to live 
decently and in enough comfort so that while growing accustomed to their 
unusual work, they might be stimulated to become useful and efficient. 

In the last two weeks the Negro Welfare Committee, with the help of 
an investigation of 120 self-supporting families, all of whom were found 
in the worst sections of the city, showed that 166 adults — only twenty of 
whom are over forty years of age — and 134 children, a total of 300 souls, 
are all crowded into insanitary dark quarters, averaging four and two- 



140 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

sevenths persons to a room. These fifty-three families paid a total rent 
per month of $415.50, an average of $7.66. The average wage of these 
people is $2.60 a day. In not one of the 120 families was there a wage earner 
making the maximum wage of $3 and $4 a day. Some of the reports in 
brief were: "Wife and children living over a stable. Hus-band earning $11 
a week." Three families in four rooms, " a little house not fit for a chicken 
coop." " A sorry looking house for so much money, $15 a month ; doors 
off the hinges, water in the cellar, two families in five rooms." " Indescrib- 
able ; so dark they must keep the light burning all day." "This family lives 
in three rooms on the second floor of a rickety frame house, built on the 
side of a hill, so that the back rooms are just above the ground. The entrance 
is in a muddy, disorderly yard and is through a tunnel in the house. The 
rooms are hard to heat because of cracks. A boy of eighteen was in bed 
breathing heavily, very ill with pneumonia, delirious at times." Unused to 
city life, crowded into dark rooms, their clothing and household utensils 
unsuitable, the stoves they have brought being all too small to heat even the 
tiny rooms they have procured (the instalment houses are charging from 
$20 to $30 for these stoves), shivering with the cold from which they do 
not know how to protect themselves, it is small wonder that illness has 
overtaken large numbers. ^ 

Newark, New Jersey, was one of the places to which the 
migrants first came in large numbers. William H. Maxwell, 
President of the Negro Forward Movement, of that city, issued 
an appeal for the protection from the unscrupulous of southern 
negroes migrating to Newark. He declared that they were being 
made to work for lower wages than they had been promised 
and that storekeepers and dealers were charging them high 
prices for worthless goods. The Newark Presbytery took up 
the matter of proper housing and clothing of the migrants who 
were unaccustomed to the rigors of a northern climate. 

On September 23, 1917, a State conference of negroes was 
held in Newark to devise ways and means to cooperate with 
the State authorities in looking after the welfare of migrants. 
Soon after this conference, it was decided to establish a State 
bureau, " for the welfare and employment of the colored citi- 
zens in the State and particularly to look after the housing, 
employment and education of the citizens migrating from the 
South." On October 12, Governor Edge had a number of 
social workers among the negroes to meet him, " to discuss the 
several perplexing and grave economic, industrial and social 

1 Cotton Pickers in Northern Cities, The Survey, February 17, 1917. 



THE SITUATION AT POINTS IN THE EAST 141 

problems arising from the steady influx of the negro migrants 
from the South." The conference was held in the Assembly 
room at the State House. Col. Lewis T. Bryant, Commissioner 
of Labor, presided. After many reports and discussions of 
work accomplished in various parts of the State, the body voted 
to accept the proposed Negro Welfare Bureau, under the De- 
partment of Labor. A fund of $7,500 is available for the com- 
ing year's maintenance and work. The scope of this bureau's 
work was employment, housing, social welfare and readjustment, 
education and legal fairness. This bureau acted as a welfare 
clearing house for all social agencies working for the betterment 
of the colored people. 

At the next session of the legislature, a bill was passed, 
February, 1918, establishing in the Department of Labor the 
Negro Welfare Employment Bureau. According to a report 
of the work of the Negro Welfare Bureau made public in April, 
1918, considerable progress in the work of improving both the 
migrating negroes to New Jersey from the South as well as the 
members of the race generally who have been in this State for 
some time has been made. With the possible exception of Salem 
and Hudson counties, the sheriffs of the State report no in- 
crease of criminality from the migration of negroes from the 
South. At Pennsgrove in Salem county, where the Du Pont 
powder plants are located, Sheriff William T. Eiffin reports 
that considering the increase in population there has been an 
increase in crime in that county, but that the situation is well 
in hand and diminishing to normal.^ 

Hartford was one of the industrial centers to which large 
numbers of the migrating negroes went. The housing problem 
became acute and the chief efforts of those endeavoring to 
better the conditions of migrants was along this line. Religious, 
civic and commercial bodies gave attention to the amelioration 
of this problem." The problem of housing negroes who were 
coming in greater numbers each year to Hartford was taken 
up briefly by speakers at the 128th annual meeting of the Hart- 

■>^Thc Courier (Camden, N. J.), April 30, 1918. 
2 The Hartford Couraiit, September 19, 1917. 



142 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

ford Baptist Association at the Shiloh Baptist Church. It was 
decided to bring the housing problem before the attention of 
the Chamber of Commerce, which, it was said, some time before 
had appointed a committee to investigate it. Negroes complained 
that they were obliged to pay higher rent than white folks and 
that they were obliged by landlords to live together in cramped 
quarters that were, by reason of the crowding, insanitary. They 
said also that the living of several families almost as one family 
leads to a breaking down of the moral and religious ideals.^ 
Conditions in Hartford resulting from the bringing of more 
than 2,500 negroes from the South were discussed at the fall 
meeting of the Confidential Exchange with a view to preparing 
for these new arrivals. 

At the June, 1917, meeting of the Chamber of Commerce, 
a committee was appointed from that body to investigate hous- 
ing conditions and to cooperate with other agencies in improv- 
ing them. The committee met frequently through the summer 
with the housing committee of the Civic Club, in an endeavor 
to ascertain the facts bearing upon the present situation. It 
had before it leading colored citizens, ministers, business men 
and industrial workers, some of whom have lived here for years 
and others who have recently arrived from the South. It was 
discovered that there was, at that time, plenty of work and at 
good wages, but the universal complaint was the lack of homes 
suitable for proper living and the extortionate prices asked for 
rents. Negroes in Hartford were suffering from the cupidity 
of landlords. They were obliged to live in poor tenements 
and under unhealthful conditions because accommodations of 
another class were withheld from them. For such inferior 
accommodations they were charged outrageous rents, because 
selfish property owners knowing that negroes must live charged 
all the traffic would bear. Partial relief was obtained from the 
immediate need by the purchase of buildings already erected, 
and homes for them were later built. It appeared that for 
the first time in many years Hartford had a race problem on 
its hands. 

1 The Hartford Post, October 9, 1917. 



CHAPTER XIII 

Remedies for Relief by National Organizations 

The sudden influx of thousands of negro workers to northern 
industrial centers created and intensified problems. More com- 
prehensive and definite plans for aiding the migrants were, 
therefore, worked out and more effective methods of help insti- 
tuted during 1917. A conference on negro migration was held 
in New York City under the auspices of the National League 
on Urban Conditions among Negroes, January 29-31, 1918. 
Among those attending the conference were representatives of 
capital, of labor, of housing conditions, the Immigration Bu- 
reau of Social Uplift Work for Negroes and others. The 
subjects considered were causes and consequences of the migra- 
tion, present conditions of those migrating and what is to be 
done to aid in the negroes' adjustment to their new environ- 
ment. 

The conference was of the impression that negroes, then 
migrating to the North in unprecedented numbers, were pre- 
paring to come in larger numbers in the spring. It, therefore, 
recommended that wherever possible, whether in the city or 
rural community, organizations be formed to foster good feeling 
between the two races, to study the health, school and work 
needs of the negro population, to develop agencies and stimu- 
late activities to meet those needs, by training and health pro- 
tection to increase the industrial efficiency of negroes and to 
encourage a fairer attitude toward negro labor, especially in 
regard to hours, conditions and regularity of work and stand- 
ard of wages, and to increase the respect for law and the orderly 
administration of justice. It further recommended that similar 
organizations be formed or existing organizations urged to take 
action which, in addition to the purposes already mentioned. 

143 



144 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

should seek to instruct the negro migrants as to the dress, habits 
and methods of living necessary to withstand the rigors of the 
northern climate; as to efficiency, regularity and application de- 
manded of workers in the North; as to the danger of dealing 
or going with unscrupulous or vicious persons and of frequent- 
ing questionable resorts; as to the opportunities offered by the 
towns and cities of the North in schools, hospitals, police pro- 
tection and employment, and as to facilities offered by the 
church, Y. M. C. A. and other organizations. 

The various religious denominations among negroes were 
profoundly affected by the migration movement. The sudden 
moving of thousands of communicants from one section of the 
country to the other caused many churches in the South to 
become disorganized and in some instances to be broken up. 
In the North the facilities of particular denominations were in- 
adequate to accommodate the new communicants who would wor- 
ship in the church of their particular faith. In some instances, 
it was necessary to hold double services in order that all who 
wished to attend the services might be accommodated. A writer 
in the Southwestern Christian Advocate, the organ of the negro 
members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, said : " The move- 
ment of the negroes by the thousands from the South to the 
North raises a many sided question. The missionary view is 
the logical view for the church, and that side of the question 
falls logically upon her hands for solution." '• 
1 The Boards of Missions of white denominations carrying 
on work among negroes made studies of the migration move- 
ment. Dr. Gilbert N. Brink, Secretary for Education of the 
American Baptist Home Mission Society, issued a pamphlet 
on " Negro Migration, What does it Mean? " - " The Invasion 
from Dixie " was the title of a circular issued on the migration 
by the Board of Home Missions and Church Extension of 
the Methodist Episcopal Church. In this circular two questions 
were asked with reference to the migrants. " What are you 
going to do for them?" and "How may we best serve this 

''■Southwestern Christian Advocate, New Orleans, La. 
2 Ibid. 



REMEDIES FOR RELIEF BY NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 145 

most pressing need of the present time?" The circular further 
said: 

The problem as seen from the viewpoint of the ^lethodist Episcopal 
Church is twofold. First, somehow to conserve the work we have already 
done in the South where the migration is leaving. Second, to provide 
religious opportunities for those people who have come from our own 
churches of the South as well as those unreached by church influences, 
so thai at the beginning of their new life in the North they may all have 
the influence of the Church of Jesus Christ to shape and mold their future. 

The Home Missions Council, which is composed of repre- 
sentatives from the boards doing missionary work in the United 
States, through its committee on negro work had a survey 
made of the migrants in Detroit. The results of this survey 
were published under the title " Negro Newcomers in Detroit." 
Detroit was selected because of the large numbers of negroes, 
who had been attracted to that city, and also because it was be- 
lieved that the conditions in Detroit, although changing, were 
sufficiently typical of other northern industrial centers as to 
give a fairly accurate understanding of this modern phase of 
the negro problem, which might have acute and serious aspects 
if not speedily cared for by an enlightened judgment, and the 
quickened conscience of the Christian church. 

The African Methodist Episcopal Church through its annual 
conferences, its Bishops' Council and its Missionary Depart- 
ment, undertook to meet the migration situation as it affected 
and imposed duties on that denomiiiation. The Bishops' Coun- 
cil recommended to all the departments of the church that, to 
meet the needs of the church as to the expenditure of money 
in the home field of the North and Northwest for the benefit 
of "our migrating people," that they should do the best they 
could, " in assisting in the establishment of missions and church 
houses for our beloved people, consistent with their obligations 
already provided for by law and by the action of the Missionary 
Board." ^ A circular containing the following questions was 
sent out to the A. M. E. churches throughout the North. 

1 Report of Bishop's Council, A.M.E. Church, 1917. 



146 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

How many persons, to your knowledge, have come from the South into 

your vicinity during the past year? 
In what sections of your city are they located? 
To what extent are they African Methodists? 
From what section of the South have they come? 
What reasons do they give for coming to the North? 
To what extent have they found employment? At what, and what is the 

average wage paid? 
Have you a Lookout Committee in your church to seek these people? If 

not, what organized effort is being put forth to church them? 
Has any special mission work been started among or for our southern 

brethren, in your vicinity? If so, what and where? 
What number of people from the South have united with your church 

during the past year? 
How do they affiliate with your people? 
What is the attitude of your members toward them? 
So far as you have seen, is the better plan, where the numbers warrant 

it, to establish a distinct mission for them or bring them into the 

already established churches? 

Bishop R. A. Carter, of the Colored Methodist Episcopal 
Church, after an extended trip north in the interest of the 
work of his denomination for the migrants, published in the 
official organ of his church a description of the situation as 
he found it, and what the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church 
should do to assist in meeting the needs of the situation. He 
said: 

I have just returned from an extended trip through the great Northwest, 
having visited St. Louis, Chicago, Gary, Milwaukee, Detroit, Cleveland, 
Pittsburgh, Clarksburg and West Virginia . . . Heretofore the few church 
houses in those cities have been sufficient for the colored people who were 
there. Since the migration of our people in such great numbers, the church 
facilities are alarmingly inadequate. It is necessary to hold two services at 
the same time in many churches and then hundreds are turned away for 
lack of room. It is pathetic to have to tell people who attend one service 
not to return to -the next so that a new crowd may be accommodated. Yet 
that is just what must be done in many instances up that way now. There 
must be more churches established in all the large cities of the North and 
East and Northwest for our people or serious results will obtain in the 
future. 

He considered the opportunity and duty of the C. M. E. 
Church as great and urgent. He recommended the purchase 
of vacant white churches offered for sale and the transfer of 



REMEDIES FOR RELIEF BY NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 147 

some of the best pastors. He urged that there be launched 
a movement for a great centenary rally for $500,000 with 
which to take advantage of the great opportunity which con- 
fronted the race in the North. 

Before the migration movement the strength of the negroes 
in labor unions was largely in the South. In this section they 
were found in considerable numbers in the carpenters, brick- 
layers, plasterers, longshoremen and miners unions. In the 
North, however, they were not generally connected wath the 
unions mainly for the reason that, excepting the hod carriers, 
teamsters, asphalt and cement workers and a few other organi- 
zations of unskilled laborers, they were not found in any occu- 
pation in sufficient numbers to necessitate being seriously con- 
sidered by organized labor. The necessities of the industrial 
situation created by the war, however, brought thousands of 
negroes north and into trades and occupations in which hitherto 
they had not been found at all or only in negligible numbers. 
A change in attitude, therefore, was necessary. At the 1910 
annual meeting of the National Council of the American Fed- 
eration of Labor a resolution was unanimously passed inviting 
negroes and all other races into the Labor Federation. The 
officers of the Federation were instructed to take measures 
to see that negro workmen as well as workmen of other races 
be brought into the union. In 1913 this action was reaffirmed 
with the assertion that 

Many years ago the American Federation of Labor declared for the 
thorough organization of all working people without regard to sex, religion, 
race, politics or nationality ; that many organizations affiliated with the Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor have within their membership negro workmen with 
all other workers of their trade, and the American Federation of Labor has 
made and is making every effort within its power for the organization of 
these workmen.i 

At its 1916 annual convention held in November at Balti- 
more, the American Federation of Labor considered the ques- 
tion of negro migration. The question was brought formally 

' Report of Proceedings, American Federation of Labor, annual session, 
1913. 



148 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

before the convention by the Ohio State Federation of Labor 
and the Cleveland Federation of Labor reciting that: "The 
investigation of such emigration and importation of negroes in 
the State of Ohio had demonstrated to the satisfaction of labor 
leaders in that State that they were being brought north for 
the purpose of filling the places of union men demanding better 
conditions, as in the case of freight handlers." Believing that 
" the conditions that prevailed in Ohio might apply in all north- 
ern States," the president and Executive Council of the Fed- 
eration were instructed to begin a movement looking towards 
the organization of negroes in the southern States." ^ 

At the 1917 convention of the American Federation of Labor 
held at Buffalo, New York, the question of negro labor was 
again considered. It was observed that the colored laborers 
and helpers throughout the southeastern district were not as 
familiar with the labor movement as they should be, especially 
upon the different railroads of the southeastern territory; and 
that there were fifteen different railroads in the district for 
which there were only four colored locals. Feeling that a negro 
organizer, because of his racial and social relations among his 
people, could accomplish much in organizing the forces into 
unions, the National Convention appointed a negro railroad 
man as organizer for the territory as above mentioned. An- 
other set of resolutions, relating to the general condition of 
negroes in the United States, making suggestions to secure the 
cooperation of the American people and the national govern- 
ment in an endeavor to have the nations participating in the 
coming world peace conference agree upon a plan to turn 
over the African continent or parts thereof to the African race 
and those descendants of said race who live in America and 
desire to return to Africa, and thus enable the black race to 
work out its own destiny on an equality with other peoples 
of the earth, was referred to a committee. The report was, 
" Your committee can not be responsible for and rejects the 
statements contained in the resolution, but, inasmuch as por- 

1 Report of Proceedings, American Federation of Labor, annual session, 
1916. 



REMEDIES FOR RELIEF BY NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 149 

tions of it refer to the organization of negro workers, the com- 
mittee recommends that that portion be referred to the Executive 
Council." ^ 

At the annual meeting of the National League on Urban 
Conditions among Negroes, held in New York City, January 
29-31, 1918, resolutions relating to labor unions and the negroes 
were adopted and a committee was appointed to place the reso- 
lutions before the executive committee of the American Fed- 
eration of Labor. The resolutions adopted were as follows: 

For the first time in the history of America, the negro working man is in 
large numbers getting a chance to offer his service at a fair wage for various 
kinds of work for which he is fitted. This opportunity, however, has come 
as a result of conditions over which neither he, nor those offering him the 
chance, have control. 

In the city of New York, on the 31st day of January, 1918, we in con- 
ference assembled under the auspices of the National League on Urban 
Conditions among Negroes, while in no way seeking to condone the existence 
of the worldwide war which has been forced upon our beloved country, wish 
to express our gratitude for the industrial changes wrought and to record 
our prayer that the benefits thus far derived by the negro may continue and 
so enlarge as to embrace full and fair opportunity in all the walks of life. 

I, We wish especially to address ourselves to the American Federation 
of Labor which at its recent convention in Buffalo, New York, voiced sound 
democratic principles in its attitude toward negro labor. 

We would ask the American Federation of Labor, in organizing negroes 
in the various trades, to include: (1) skilled as well as unskilled workmen, 
(2) northern as well as southern workmen, (3) government as well as 
civilian employes, (4) women as well as men workers. 

We would have negro labor handled by the American Federation of Labor 
in the same manner as white labor; (1) when workmen are returning to 
work after a successful strike; (2) when shops are declared "open" or 
"closed"; (3) when union workers apply for jobs. 

We would have these assurances pledged not with word only, but by 
(Jeeds— pledged by an increasing number of examples of groups of negro 
workmen given a " square deal." 

With these accomplished, we pledge ourselves to urge negro working men 
to seek the advantages of sympathetic cooperation and understanding be- 
tween men who work. 

II. We would also address ourselves to the Labor Bureau of the United 
States Government. 

In our national effort to speed up production of articles essential to the 

1 Report of Proceedings, American Federation of Labor, annual session, 
1917. 



150 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

conduct of the war as well as the production of other goods, let us not lose 
sight of our duty to our country in quantity production by an unreasonable 
prejudice in many quarters against the use of negro labor. Negro workmen 
are loyal and patriotic, cheerful and versatile. In some sections there is an 
oversupply of such labor ; in other sections a shortage. 

We would urge the appointment of one or two competent negroes in 
the Department of Labor to serve as assistants in each of the bureaus in 
distributing negro labor to meet war and peace needs. 

III. We would urge negro workmen to remain cheerful and hopeful in 
work; to be persevering in their efforts to improve in regularity, punctuality 
and efficiency, and to be quick to grasp all opportunities for training both 
themselves and their children. Success lies in these directions. 

IV. We would impress upon employers the fact that the efficiency of their 
employes during work hours depends very largely on the use made of the 
non-working hours. Most of the complaints against negro labor can be 
removed if proper housing, decent amusement, fair wages and proper treat- 
ment are provided.^ 

These resolutions were presented to the executive officers 
of the American Federation of Labor on February 12, 1918, 
by a committee composed of E. K. Jones, Director of National 
League on Urban Conditions among Negroes, Robert R, Mo- 
ton, Principal of Tuskegee Institute, Archibald H. Grimke, 
Thomas Jesse Jones, specialist in the United States Bureau of 
Education, J. R. Shillady, Secretary of the National Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Colored People, Fred R. Moore, 
editor of the New York Age, George W. Harris, editor of the 
New York News, and Emmett J. Scott, special assistant to the 
Secretary of War. The committee requested of the Executive 
Council that a committee be appointed by the American Fed- 
eration of Labor to confer with a committee representing the 
interests of the negroes. This request was granted. 

At the American Federation of Labor annual convention 
held at St. Paul, Minnesota, in June, 1918, the problem of 
negro workers and organized labor again received considerable 
attention. B. S. Lancaster, a negro delegate to the convention 
from Mobile, Alabama, offered a resolution asking for the 
appointment of a negro to organize negroes not now affiliated 
with unions in the shipbuilding trades. Another resolution 

1 Minutes of Session, National League on Urban Conditions, January 29-31, 



REMEDIES FOR RELIEF BY NATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 151 

was to the effect that negro porters, cooks, waiters and wait- 
resses, section hands and all negro railway employes to be 
organized. The press reports of the convention under date 
of June 12, said: 

Dr. R. R. Moton, Principal of the Tuskegee Institute, and J. R. Shillady, of 
the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, are 
authors of a communication asking for closer cooperation between white 
and colored workers. They ask that Mr. Gompers prepare a statement on 
his stand toward negro labor, and charge that some unions discriminate 
against colored workers. They urge consideration of revision of union 
charters to permit negroes to become members. The communication was 
referred.^ 

These efforts were not without some result, for sentiment 
began to change. In its August, 1918, issue the editor of the 
Labor News of Detroit, Michigan, said: 

The time has arrived for the American labor movement to face squarely 
the fact that the negro is a big factor in our industrial life, and that he must 
be taken into account in the adjustment of our economic differences. Never 
again can the negro be ignored. Time and time again the selfish masters 
of industry have used him to batter your organizations to pieces, and, in- 
stead of trying to win him over, you have savagely fought him, because 
they used him as a strikebreaker. But the negro must be made to see the 
value of organization to himself, and he must be incorporated into and 
made a part of the great labor movement. It is a stupid policy to try to 
keep him out. Let us work to shift him from his present unhappy position, 
where he is despised by the big business element, notwithstanding his utility 
as a strikebreaker, and hated by unionists for his loyalty to the open shop 
element. Unionism must welcome the negro to its ranks. 

1 Report of M. N. Work on migration to the North. 



CHAPTER XIV 
Public Opinion Regarding the Migration 

It was to be expected that a movement which so profoundly 
affected the social and economic life of the South would be 
widely discussed, and that the resulting discussions, wherein 
were set forth at length the views of whites and negroes, would 
throw much light upon the conditions existing prior to the 
movement. How the South viewed this taking away of a large 
part of her labor supply was stated in letters to the newspapers 
and in newspaper editorials. There were two views as to the 
effect of the migration on the South. One view held that the 
movement would benefit the South in that the negro population 
would be more evenly distributed over the entire country and 
as a result the race problem would be more truly national. The 
other view was that negro labor was a necessity for the South, 
and the drawing of a considerable part of this labor north 
was seriously detrimental to the South's economic interests. 

The following are examples of expressions by those holding 
the view that the migration would benefit the South: 

The New Orleans Times Picayune said : 

Despite the attitude of certain extreme papers of the North that there 
was a broad conspiracy existing here to prevent the negroes from leaving, 
the records show that many southern papers and people welcomed the 
movement, believing that it would have a beneficial effect on the South by 
removing the negro majorities in many districts and in at least two States, 
South Carolina and Mississippi. The problems of negro majorities is 
rapidly working itself out. Louisiana, a State in which the negro was more 
numerous a few decades ago, is white today by several hundred thousand, 
and will have a million more whites by the next census. South Carolina 
and Mississippi expect to report white majorities in the next ten years as 
they are drifting rapidly in that direction, and negro emigration will help 
this condition along. 

During the first months of this negro movement northward, a number of 
South Carolina papers, led by the Columbia State, instead of expressing 

152 



PUBLIC OPINION REGARDING THE MIGRATION 153 

apprehension over these departures, showed satisfaction that the State was 
getting rid of its excess of negroes. At the Southern Commercial Congress 
in a session at Norfolk, Judge Francis D. Winston, of North Carolina, ex- 
pressed this same view of the situation in a resolution which declares that: 
" The complete industrial, intellectual and social development of the south- 
ern States can be secured only when the negro becomes a part of the 
citizenship of our sister States, and that we will encourage all movements 
tending to an equitable distribution of our negro population among the 
other States of the Union. 

It is not likely that there will be any serious objection to a declaration of 
this kind in favor of the more equitable distribution of the negroes through- 
out the country as the question involved can then be better handled. No 
encouragement to the negroes to leave the South will be held out, but there 
will be no effort made to keep the negroes from going beyond explaining 
the situation to them.i 



A' comment of the Nashville Banner was : 

From a logical point of view that looks beyond immediate emergencies, 
the southern whites should encourage negro emigration to the North, not 
for the cynical motives that impelled the late Hon. Jeff Davis while Gov- 
ernor of Arkansas to pardon negro convicts on condition that they go to 
Massachusetts to live, but to relieve the South of the entire burden and 
all the brunt of the race problem, and make room for and to create greater 
inducements for white immigration that the South very much needs. Some 
thousands of negroes going north every year and a corresponding number 
of whites coming south would affect a distribution of the races that would 
be in many ways beneficial and that at the very least would take away from 
the race problem all sectional aspects, which is and has always been the 
chief cause of sectional ill feeling. And it would in the end give the South 
a homogeneous citizenship. 

The Vicksburg Herald ^ was of the opinion that : 

Adjustments and compensation will, we have faith, come. The northern 
drift as it continues, and carries thousands with it, will lower negro con- 
gestion in certain sections of the South. Such a change, restrained and 
graduated against violent progression, promises ultimate benefit. In the 
South, the effect of losing thousands of negroes from lands in southern 
Mississippi is already . . . producing a wholesome farm diversification and 
economic stimulation. Then, too, a more equitable distribution of the sons 
of Ham will teach the Caucasians of the northern States that wherever there 
is a negro infusion, there will be a race problem — a white man's burden — 
which they are destined to share. 

^ New Orleans Times Picayune, December 15, 1916. 
- August 19, 1916. 



154 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

Among those holding the view that the South needed the 
negro was the Memphis Commercial Appeal.'^ Concerning this 
an editorial in this paper said that not only does the South need 
the negro, but that he should be encouraged to stay. 

The enormous demand for labor and the changing conditions brought 
about by the boll weevil in certain parts of the South have caused an 
exodus of negroes which may be serious. Great colonies of negroes have 
gone north to work in factories, in packing houses and on the railroads. 

Some of our friends think that these negroes are being taken north for 
the purpose of voting them in November. Such is not the case. The 
restriction of immigration because of the European war and the tremendous 
manufacturing and industrial activity in the North have resulted in a 
scarcity of labor. The negro is a good track hand. He is also a good 
man around packing houses, and in certain elementary trades he is useful. 

The South needs every able-bodied negro that is now south of the line, 
and every negro who remains south of the line will in the end do better 
than he will do in the North. 

The negro has been a tremendous factor in the development of agricul- 
ture and all the commerce of the South. But in the meantime, if we are 
to keep him here, and if we are to have the best use of his business capacity, 
there is a certain duty that the white man himself must discharge in his 
relation to the negro. 

The business of lynching negroes is bad, and we believe it is declining, 
but the worst thing is that the wrong negro is often lynched. The negro 
should be protected in all his legal rights. Furthermore, in some com- 
munities, some white people make money at the expense of the negro's 
lack of intelligence. Unfair dealing with the negro is not a custom in the 
South. It is not the rule, but here and there the taking of enormous 
profits from the labor of the negro is known to exist. 

It should be so arranged that the negro in the city does not have to 
raise his children in the alleys and in the streets. Liquor in the cities 
has been a great curse to negroes. Millions of dollars have been made by 
no account white people selling no account liquor to negroes and thus 
making a whole lot of negroes no account. Happily this business is being 
extinguished. 

The negroes who are in the South should be encouraged to remain 
there, and those white people who are in the boll weevil territory should 
make every sacrifice to keep their negro labor until there can be adjust- 
ments to the new and quickly prosperous conditions that will later exist. 

Among those holding the same view that the South needed 
the negro was the Georgia Enquirer Sim of Columbus, Georgia.^ 

1 October 5, 1916. 

2 December 2, 1916. 



PUBLIC OPINION REGARDING THE MIGRATION 155 

An editorial in this paper said that not only does the South need 
the negro but that he should be encouraged to stay. 

The Enquirer Sun further emphasized the fact that the South 
needs the negro : 

With the certainty that a number will differ with us, we state that the 
negro is an economic necessity to the South. Our plantations are large, 
our climate is peculiar, and we ourselves are not accustomed to doing 
the work that we ask the negro to do. Serious labor conditions have 
confronted us before, and it is exceedingly rare to find the native land 
owning white farmer, who has been accustomed to employ negro labor, 
taking the negro's place when the negro leaves his neighborhood. The 
same conditions exist in the industries where we of the South have been 
depending upon the negroes as artisans in our industries or mines. 

The South has refused to accept immigration as a means of supplying 
our demands for labor. The farmers stand up and howl about preserving 
the pure blood of the South and invent all sorts of reasons for prohibiting 
the immigration of the same classes of people who have been makmg 
the North and East rich for years ; the same classes that build the eighth 
wonder of the world — the Middle West. Now, if we are going to prohibit 
immigration, we must consider the economic status sufficiently seriously 
to preserve the only reliable supply of labor which we have ever known. 
That is the negro. We should ponder over the situation seriously and 
not put off until tomorrow its consideration, because this movement is 
growing every day. We should exercise our influence with our landlords 
and our merchants to see that a fairer division of profit is made with the 
negro and should watch the prices charged him as well as the interest 
charged him. We should see that the industries offer and pay to him a 
full and fair wage for his labor which will compare favorably with the 
wages offered in the East. We should see to it that the police in our 
towns, cities and counties cease making distinction between the negro and 
the white man when the negro is not absolutely known to be a criminal. 
When we do these things, we will keep our labor and we need to keep it. 

In connection with the discussion of the need of the South 
for the negro, the duty of the South to the negro was pointed 
out. According to the Columbia (S, C.) State :'^ 

If the southern white people would have the negroes remain, they must 
treat the negroes justly. If they refuse to do so their hope of keeping 
negro labor is in the unwillingness of the North to treat them justly, 
and we fear that this hope is more substantial than the North likes to 
admit. Justice ought to be cultivated everywhere for its own sake. Surely 
common sense will dictate to the South that it ought to forestall the 

1 December 22, 1916. 



15G NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

disruption of our industrial establishment by causing negroes to understand 
that they are safe where they are. 

The Macon Telegraph said of negro labor: "If we lose it, we go bank- 
rupt." Yet this same paper only a few months before was advocating the 
sending of 100,000 negroes into Mexico to conquer the " mongrel breed/' 
and at the same time rid the South of that many worthless negroes. 

The black man has no quarrel with the Mexican, but, on the other hand, 
he certainly has a disagreement with conditions as they affect him in the 
South, and, when he desires to improve those conditions by getting away 
from them, he must be checked. Plenty of " sound advice " is given him 
about staying in the South among his friends and under the same old con- 
ditions. The bugaboo of cold weather is put before him to frighten him, 
of race antagonism and sundry other things, but not one word about 
better treatment is suggested to lighten the burden, no sane and reasonable 
remedy offered. 

The black labor is the best labor the South can get, no other would work 
long under the same conditions. It has been faithful and loyal, but that 
loyalty can be undermined, witness the exodus. 

A letter published in the Montgomery Advertiser^ truly says: 

And the negro will not come back once he leaves the South. 

The World War is bringing many changes and a chance for the negro 
to enter broader fields. With the " tempting bait " of higher wages, shorter 
Jiours, better schools and better treatment, all the preachments of the so- 
called race leaders will fall on deaf ears. 

It is probable that the "well informed negro," who told the Birmingham 
editor that it was good schools that were drawing the negro, could have 
given other and more potent reasons had he been so minded. He could 
have told how deep down in the negro's heart he has no love for pro- 
scription, segregation, lynchings, the petty persecutions and cruelties against 
him, nor for the arresting of "fifty niggers for what three of 'em done," 
even if it takes all of this to uphold the scheme of civilization. 

From Savannah alone, three thousand negroes went, from sixteen year 
old boys to men of sixty years. There must be something radically wrong 
when aged negroes are willing to make the change. There is greater unrest 
among negroes than those in high places are aware. 

Let the Advertiser speak out in the same masterful way, with the same 
punch and pep for a square deal for the negro, that it does for democracy 
and the right for local self-government. 

What was the attitude of the northern whites toward the 
migration? Although the North had been accustomed to the 
adding of a million foreigners annually to her population, these 
newcomers were white people and as such did not occasion the 

1 The Advertiser, Montgomery, Alabama, September 22, 1917. 



PUBLIC OPINION REGARDING THE MIGRATION 157 

comment or create just the problems which a large influx of 
negroes created. The migration of the negro attracted a great 
deal of public attention, A wide and extended discussion of 
the movement was carried on through the press. The attitude 
which the white people assumed toward the migrants was ex- 
pressed in this discussion. 

The New Republic of New York City ^ pointed out that the 
movement gave the negro a chance and that he, the South and 
the nation, would in the end, all be gainers. 

When Austria found the Serbian reply inadmissible, the American negro, 
who had never heard of Count Berchtold, and did not care whether Bosnia 
belonged to Austria or Siam, got his " chance." It was not the sort of 
chance that came to the makers of munitions — a chance to make millions. 
It was merely a widening of a very narrow foothold on life, a slightly 
better opportunity to make his way in the industrial world of America. 

In the beginning such a migration of negroes would increase the present 
race friction in the North. Within certain limits a racial minority is 
unpopular directly in proportion to its numbers. Only as it increases to 
the point where political and economic power makes it formidable, does 
it overcome opposition. The negro's competition for jobs and homes 
will probably exacerbate relations. As the negroes increased in numbers 
they would not only seek menial and unskilled work, but also strive to enter 
skilled trades where they would meet with antagonism of white workers. 
Moreover, the negroes would be forced to seek homes in what are now 
regarded as " white " neighborhoods, and a clamor would be raised at each 
new extension of their dwelling area. 

The antidote to persecution, however, is power, and if the northern 
negroes are more numerous and more urgently needed in our industrial 
life, they could protect themselves from the worst forms of discrimination. 
If by 1930 the negro population of the North has become three millions, 
instead of the fraction over one million which it is today, and if these 
three millions live better and save and spend more per capita than today, 
they will profit more than they will lose from their greater numbers. 
Their custom will be more valuable, their political power greater and, as 
wage earners, they will be strong enough to strike. Once they have com- 
pletely filled a new neighborhood, opposition will cease. Moreover, the 
industrial competition with white workmen, while severe at certain crucial 
points, should not permanently be dangerous, since the very conditions which 
bring the negro north also make for higher wages for the white workers. 
What the white wage earner desires is not an industrial exploitation of the 
negro, but the maintenance of the white man's superiority of position. 

For the nation as a whole, such a gradual dissemination of the negroes 
among all the States would ultimately be of real advantage. If at the end 

ijuly 1, 1917. 



158 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

of half a century, only 50 or 60 per cent, instead of 89 per cent of the 
negroes, were congregated in the southern States, it would end the fear of 
race domination, and take from the South many of its peculiar characteris- 
tics, which today hamper development. To the negro it would be of even 
more obvious benefit. The race would be far better educated, considerably 
richer, and with greater political power. Success for the negroes of the 
North would mean better conditions for southern negroes. For if the 
southern negro, finding political and social conditions intolerable, were 
able to emigrate to the North, he would have in his hand a weapon as 
effective as any he could find in the ballot box. 

The Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Daily Northwestern felt that a large 
influx of colored people would bring to the North the same 
perplexing problems that long have disturbed the people of 
the southern States. 

This, in fact, is the most serious aspect of this reported migration of 
southern blacks, and it is suggestive of no end of trouble for some of 
the northern States, which heretofore have regarded the so-called negro 
problem as something which little concerns them. The South has struggled 
for years to solve this problem, with its many phases and angles, and 
never yet has found a satisfactory solution. Should the same baffling 
questions be forced on the North it would give the people something to 
think about, and many will gain a new appreciation of the perplexities of 
the southern whites. And the necessity of facing this new problem may 
come to the North much sooner than generally is expected. 

The Springfield, Massachusetts, Union ^ was also of the 
opinion that: 

The North has been strong for the negro, considered as a political 
entity, but our communities are manifestly not desirous of supplying a 
field for him to expand and adapt himself to the social structure, and their 
leaders experience more difficulty in this regard than do their co-laborers 
in the South, with its vast colored population. This in itself furnished 
food for careful thought. 

In a way, there is justification for a disinclination on the part of New 
Englanders to add a large negro element to their number. We have enough 
of a problem already to absorb and educate the large alien element that 
has come into our midst from the Old World. Our duty toward our 
colored residents should not go unrecognized, and the first step toward a 
just and fair disposal of related problems is to admit frankly that a rather 
strict color line is being drawn among us. 

ijuly 16, 1916. 



PUBLIC OPINION REGARDING THE MIGRATION 159 

The Beloit, Wisconsin, News ^ held that the migration had 
brought the negro problem north and made it national : 

The negro problem has moved north. Rather, the negro problem has 
spread from south to north ; and beside it in the South is appearing a 
stranger to that clime — the labor problem. 

It's a double development brought about by the war in Europe, and the 
nation has not yet realized its significance. Within a few years, experts 
predict the negro population of the North will be tripled. It's your prob- 
lem, then, or it will be when the negro moves next door. 

Italians and Greeks are giving way to the negroes in the section gangs 
along northern railroads, as you can see from the train windows, and as 
labor agents admit. Northern cities that had only small colored popula- 
tions are finding their "white" sections invaded by negro families, strangers 
to the town. Many cities are in for the experience that has befallen all 
communities on the edge of the North and South — gradual encroachment 
of colored folks on territory occupied by whites ; depreciation in realty 
values and lowering of rents, and finally, movmg of the white families 
to other sections, leaving the districts in possession of colored families 
with a small sprinkling of whites. 

This mea»s racial resentment — for the white family that moves to escape 
negro proximity always carries, justly or not, a prejudice against the black 
race. It hits your pocket too. 

Negroes will enter trades now monopolized by white men, at first, per- 
haps, as strike breakers ; later, as non-union competitors, working for 
smaller wages. It will take some time, probably, to get them into the 
labor unions' way of thinking. 

Politicians, both good and bad, will seek the ballot of a large new element, 
which will vote largely in the lump. Now, what will be the effect in the 
southern States? Already the offers of better jobs further north have 
caused strikes among southern negroes — something almost unheard of. 
The South gets no immigration, but the negro has been an ever present 
source of cheap labor. With the black tide setting north, the southern 
negro, formerly a docile tool, is demanding better pay, better food and 
better treatment. And no longer can the South refuse to give it to him. 
For when the South refuses the negro moves away. It's a national problem 
now, instead of a sectional problem. And it has got to be solved. 

The New York Globe ^ said that : 

For more than a year a migration of men and women of color to north- 
ern States has been going on that has already deprived thousands of 
southern farmers of cheap labor. And the movement bids fair to con- 
tinue. That it will have both good and bad effects is obvious. It will 
distribute the negro population more evenly throughout the States and thus 
tend to diminish race friction. But unless there is a change of spirit on 

1 August 25. 1916. 

2 July 31, 1916, 



160 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

the part of northern unions, it will increase the danger of labor troubles 
in case of industrial depression. 

The Pittsburgh Dispatch ^ held that the migration was help- 
ing the negro. It was of the opinion that: 

This movement eastward and westward of unskilled negro labor will 
both directly and indirectly help the negro. The younger element, those 
of ambition and of some training in the schools, will be constantly emerging 
from unskilled to the semiskilled classes, with a consequent increase in 
their pay rolls and a betterment in their methods of living. 

A decidedly better treatment of the negro, both in the North and the 
South, will grow out of the fact that the demand for his labor has been 
limited and the supply unlimited. 

In the spring of 1918 the Walla Walla, Washington, Bulletin ^ 
summed up the situation thus : 

There was much alarm a year or two ago over the migration of negroes 
to the North in large numbers. It was felt that they had far better stay 
HI the South, in a familiar and congenial environment, and keep on raising 
cotton and food, than crowd into the inhospitable North for unaccustomed 
factory work. We have heard less of that lately; it is still doubtful whether 
the change is good for the negro himself, and there's no question that his 
coming has complicated housing conditions and social problems in northern 
cities. But economically the matter appears in a new light. At a time 
when war industries were starving for labor, the negro provided the labor. 
He is recognized as a new industrial asset. 

The migration has been unfortunate, to be sure, for the communities 
thus deprived of agricultural labor; but it is said that from a broad, 
national standpoint the gain to the manufacturing industries more than 
compensates. And there has been an actual increase in the output of 
energy. The negro works harder in the North. He produces more. He 
is thus of more use to the community. And for the benefit he brings, 
communities are more willing than they were at first to tolerate the 
inconvenience due to his coming. 

Some of the negro newspapers opposed the migration. 
Prominent amftng these was the Journal and Guide of Norfolk, 
Virginia, and the Voice of the People of Birmingham, Alabama. 
In speaking against the migration, the Journal and Guide ^ said : 

1 October 1, 1916. 

2 March 13, 1918. 

3 March 24, 1917. 



PUBLIC OPINION REGARDING THE MIGRATION 161 

It is difficult, if not impossible, to check the operation of an economic 
law, and it is perfectly natural that men should seek fields of labor in 
which they are promised higher wages and better conditions, but those 
who go and those who encourage the going of them should get the facts 
of the so-called inducements and learn the truth about them before lending 
their influence to a movement that can not only promise no permanent 
good to laborers, but works untold injury to the foundation of their own 
economic structure. 

Another phase of the matter, and one that invites the condemnation of 
all honest persons, is the manner in which negro labor is at present ex- 
ploited to satisfy the selfish whims of a group of misguided and ill-advised 
agitators and fanatics on the race question. All of the nice talk about 
" fleeing from southern oppression," and going where " equal rights and 
social privileges " await them is pure buncombe. It is strange that negro 
labor should stand the oppression of the South for fifty years and sud- 
denly make up its mind to move northward as an evidence of its resentment. 

The truth of the matter is that the element of negroes in the South 
that feel the oppression most is not concerned in the migration movement. 
Nor are they going to leave their homes and accumulations of half a cen- 
tury as a solution of their problems. They are going to remain here 
and fight out their constitutional rights accorded them here in the land of 
their birth. 

The editor of The Star of Zion, Charlotte, North Carolina,* 
conceded the right of the negro to go wherever he had oppor- 
tunity to go; on the other hand, it was doubtful whether a 
wholesale exodus was for the best. He said: 

While I concede the black man's right to go where he likes, for he has 
the right of liberty and the pursuit of happiness, yet I doubt the wisdom 
of such wholesale exodus from the South. There are some things which 
the negro needs far more than his wages, or some of the rights for which 
he contends. He needs conservation of his moral life. 

In the North a negro is brought face to face with new problems ; among 
the many is the problem of adjusting himself to the abundance of freedom 
into which he comes so suddenly. His new freedom brings him new changes, 
as well as new opportunities, for among the roses there lies the thorn. . . . 
While the inducements of the North are very alluring, in the end the negro 
problem must be wrought out in the South. 

Concerning the Journal and Guide's position, the Raleigh, 
North Carolina, Independent - took issue and said : 

Our disagreement with our estimable contemporary, the Norfolk Journal 
and Guide, we are persuaded, is far less real than seeming. Essentially we 

ijuly 19, 1917. 
2 April 28, 1917. 



162 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

are in accord. We are certain that the Journal and Guide is not advocating 
the hmitation of the negro to any one section of the country. If the exigen- 
cies of the present war have created a demand for his labor in the North 
at better wages than he can secure in the South hke other people, he 
should take advantage of it and plant himself firmly in the industrial life 
of the section. 

There are two ways by which we may improve our condition in this 
country. The one is segregation — ^voluntary segregation. The other is 
" scatteration." If we can come together, build up communities of our 
own. promote them into towns and even cities, we shall do well. If, on 
the other hand, we shall scatter all over the land and have nowhere a 
numerical congestion, we strengthen our cause. 

The Dallas (Texas) Express^ said: 

The strangest thing, the real mystery about the exodus, is that in all the 
Southland there has not been a single meeting or promoter to start the 
migration. Just simultaneously all over the South about a year ago, the 
negro began to cross the Mason and Dixon line. Indeed, this is a most 
striking case where the negro has beeii doing a great deal more thinking 
than talking, knowing he is not given the freedom of speech. Who knows, 
then, what the providence of God is in this exodus. This exodus is not 
by any means confined to the worthless or the ignorant negro. A large 
per cent of the young negroes in this exodus are rather intelligent. Many 
of the business houses in Houston, Dallas and Galveston, where the exodus 
is greatest in Texas, have lost some of their best help. To tell the truth 
more fully, the negroes generally throughout the South are more dissatis- 
fied with conditions than they have been for several years and there are 
just reasons why they should be. Every negro newspaper and publication 
in this broad land, including pamphlets and books, and the intelligent negro 
pastor with backbone and courage are constantly protesting against the 
injustices done the negro. And possibly these agents have been the greatest 
incentives to help create and crystallize this unrest and migration. 

How the negro should be treated and what would hold him 
in the South was discussed at length and on many occasions 
in the columns of the Atlanta (Georgia) Independent.^ An 
example of this discussion follows: 

Last week we discussed at length the negro exodus. We tried to point 
out in plain, simple and manly language the reason and remedy for moving 
north. We warned our white neighbors that city ordinances and legislation 
could not stem the tide; that humane treatment would do more to settle 
the negro's industrial and economic unrest than anything else; that the 

1 August 11, 1917. 

2 January 27, 1917. 



PUBLIC OPINION REGARDING THE MIGRATION 163 

South was his natural home and he desired to stay here ; but in order to 
keep him at home he must have contentment; he had to be assured of 
protection of life and property; assured of the enjoyment of pubhc utilities; 
assured of educational advantages, ample and adequate, to prepare his 
children for useful and helpful citizenship; he must be permitted to serve 
God unmolested and to assemble in the community where he lives, in 
church, in society and politics ; for his own moral, intellectual and physical 
benefit he must be given living wages and reminded in his daily dealings 
with his white neighbor that he is a citizen, not a negro, and that he is 
charged with responsibilities like other citizens. The negro is conscious 
of his racial identity and not ashamed of it. He is proud of his race and 
his color, but does not like to have the word " negro " define his relation 
as a citizen. The white man should understand that the negro is making 
progress; that he is getting property and education; that his wants are 
increasing in common with the white man's wants and that he is not 
going to be bottled up or hemmed up in any community, so long as there 
is another community on the face of the earth where he can breathe freely 
and enjoy the pursuits of hfe, liberty and happiness in common with other 
men. 

The Christian Index ^ the official organ of the Colored Metho- 
dist Episcopal Church, published at Jackson, Tennessee, was of 
the opinion that: 

There are two sets of causes for the negro leaving the South at this 
time. One set may be known as the surface causes and the other set beneath- 
the-surface causes. The surface causes are easily seen and understood. 
These are economic causes. The war in Europe has called home foreigners 
out of the industrial centers of the North and West. These large factories 
and other industrial enterprises, representing enormous investments, had to 
turn in some other direction for labor. These large industrial opportunities 
with higher wages made strong appeals to the southern negro. 

The beneath-the-surface causes are to be found in the handicaps under 
which the negro labors in the South and the uncivilized treatment to 
which he is subjected. He is segregated. To this he most strenuously 
objects. There is a difference between segregation and separation, espe- 
cially so in the southern interpretation of segregation as observed in the 
practice of the South in its enforcement of the idea. Separation in matters 
social and religious is not necessarily objectionable. Left alone each race 
group instinctively seeks separation from other race groups. But segrega- 
tion, as we have it, means more than separation; it means inferiority and 
humiliation. It means not only another section of the city for the negro, 
but a section that is inferior in improvement and protection ; it means not 
only a different school, but an inferior school both in building and equip- 
ment; it means not only separate accommodations on the railroads, but 

1 June 24, 1917. 



164 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

deplorably inferior accommodations; this, too, in the face of the fact that 
the negro pays the same price that is paid by others. 

Another cause is the code of laws, or rather the practice of it, that 
gives more concern to the color of a man's skin than to the merits of a 
case he may have in the courts of justice. The negro is taught not to 
expect justice in the courts, however industrious, honest, law abiding he 
may be, when his lawful rights to liberty and protection are contested by 
a white man. The negro suffers in the courts, not always because he is 
guilty, not because he lacks character, but because his skin, not his heart, 
is black. 

What was the attitude of the northern negroes toward the 
migration? With some exceptions, negroes north assumed a 
friendly attitude toward the migrants. Many of these residents 
of the North were themselves but recently come from the South. 
The newcomers were looked upon as brethren, just coming into 
the " Promised Land." They were welcomed in the churches 
and otherwise made to feel at home. In some cities there were 
organizations of resident negroes to look after the welfare of 
the new arrivals. In the northern race newspapers, the attitude 
of the negro north was fully set forth, as the following extracts 
from the New York Ncws'^ indicate: 

We hail with no alarm whatever the influx of colored men from the 
South. The colored people of the North will be strengthened by the 
hard working, ambitious laborers added to their numbers. The laboring 
conditions and life of the masses of the colored people in the South will 
be made better and brighter by their leaving. 

Yet a heavy responsibility rests upon every colored leader, moral and 
civic, in these northern States to take an especial interest in their newly 
arriving brethren. You must teach them not to take their liberty to be 
ladies and gentlemen for license to degrade themselves and their race 
here. You must urge them to avoid the deadly vice and wasting extrava- 
gance of the unhealthy congested city. They should find their homes and 
rear their families in the suburbs, where they can buy their own homes 
and properly train their children in head, hand and heart. Urge them to 
get steady work and settle down. Urge them to become good citizens 
and better parents. Urge them to go to church, to lead patient Christian 
lives and all will come out well in the end. 

The Philadelphia Christian Recorder " took the ground that : 

1. The negro is an American. He speaks the language of the country 
and is, therefore, superior to the foreigner in this respect. 

1 September 17, 1916. 

2 February 1, 1917. 



PUBLIC OPINION REGARDING THE MIGRATION 165 

2. He knows the customs of the country and here again has the advantage 
of the foreigner. 

3. He is a peaceable worker and is glad to have an opportunity to make 
good. 

4. The negro is physically the equal and morally the superior of the immi- 
grant from Europe. 

There are reasons why the negro should succeed in the North. So we 
have no doubt that many will come. 

Indeed, if a million negroes move north and west in the next twelve 
months, it will be one of the greatest things for the negro since the Eman- 
cipation Proclamation. And the movement of a million negroes should 
not alarm anybody, especially when we remember that a million immigrants 
were coming every year to this country before the war. 

Let the good work go on. Let every community in the North organize 
to get jobs for our friends in the South. Let a million come. In coming 
the negroes will get higher wages. 

They will get first class schools, running nine months a year — a thing 
worth leaving the South for, if there were no other advantages. 

They will have a chance in the courts. If they should happen to have 
a difference with a white man, they will not take their lives in their own 
hands by standing up for their side. 

They will be able to defend their homes, their wives and children in a 
way no negro can now protect them in the South. 

They will have the right to vote. The foreigner must wait seven years 
for this — the negro only one year. If a million negroes come north, they 
will soon get sufficient political power, which combined with their economic 
power will be able to force the South to do some things she is now 
unwilling to do. 

With labor competition for the negro between North and South with the 
North offering higher wages, better living conditions, better education, pro- 
tection and a vote, the South must bestir herself if she would keep the 
best labor in the world. And southern statesmen will see that the South 
must cease to lynch, begin to educate and finally restore the ballot. 

"But," says an objector, "these negroes coming north will increase 
prejudice." What if they do? Then the northern negro will sympathize 
more with his southern brother. But if prejudice increases, the negro 
has the ballot which is an effective way to combat it. If a million negroes 
come here we will have more negro businesses, better churches, more pro- 
fessional men and real political power, and the negro in the North will 
begin to get a social position not based on mere charity. 



What were the causes of migration? A very large part of 
the discussion of the movement was taken up with setting forth 
the causes. The Montgomery Advertiser was of the opinion 
that the chief causes of the negro's leaving central Alabama were 
floods and the cotton boll weevil : 



166 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

The negro from middle Alabama is going north because of economic 
conditions which he can not help and which he can not overcome. He is 
not being forced out by pressure from the white race. The relations be- 
tween the two races in this section were never better; the negro is not 
subjected to oppression or or to any outbreaks of violence, which have in- 
duced the negro to leave certain sections of the South. 

The negro is going because he is the most unfortunate of the victims 
of the combined disaster this year of the flood and the boll weevil. There 
have been actual want and hunger among some of the negroes on the planta- 
tions. The heads of negro families have been without present resources 
and without future prospects. The wise planter and farmer has said to 
his negro employes and tenants : 

" You have not made anything this year. I have not made anything this 
year. But we will do our best and I will see what resources I can get 
together to keep you until next year, when we can all make a fresh start." 

Another class of farmers, and we suspect that their number is too large, 
has said, " You never made anything this year. I never made anything 
this year. I can not afford to feed you and your family until the beginning 
of the next crop year. You must go out and shift for yourselves." 

This cold blooded business view of the situation, we suspect, has been 
the best assistance that the labor agent has received. It is not difficult 
to know what a negro farm hand will do when he and his family are 
facing hunger, when a labor agent offers him a railroad ticket and a 
promise of two dollars and a half a day in the industrial works of the 
North and East.i 

Lynching was one of the reasons most often given as a cause 
of the migration. 

Current dispatches from Albany, Georgia, in the center of the section 
apparently most affected, and where efforts are being made to stop the 
exodus by spreading correct information among the negroes, say: 

" The heaviest migration of negroes has been from those counties in 
which there have been the worst outbreaks against negroes. It is developed 
by investigation that where there have been lynchings, the negroes have 
been most eager to believe what the emigration agents have told them of 
plots for the removal or extermination of the race. Comparatively few 
negroes have left Dougherty county, which is considered significant in view 
of the fact that this is one of the counties in southwest Georgia in which 
a lynching has never occurred." 

These statements are most significant. Mob law we have known in 
Georgia has furnished emigration agents with all the leverage they want ; 
it is a foundation upon which it is easy to build with a well conducted 
lie or two, and they have not been slow to take advantage of it. 

This loss of her best labor is another penalty Georgia is paying for 
her indifference and inactivity in suppressing mob law. 

1 The Advertiser, Montgomery, Alabama, December 12, 1916. 



PUBLIC OPINION REGARDING THE MIGRATION 167 

If Georgia is injured, agriculturally and industrially by the negro exodas, 
the white people here have no one to blame but themselves. 

The indictment is true, every word of it. The appeal to humanity, to 
fairness and justice and right, has been apparently without effect. It is 
unfortunate for the people of Georgia that an appeal to the pocketbook 
should be necessary to bring back the enthronement of law, but if moral 
suasion is powerless, the question of personal interest has entered and 
in no uncertain degree. 

The trouble incident to the migration of negroes from Georgia and the 
South is exactly as stated. 

There is no secret about what must be done, if Georgia would save herself 
from threatened disaster, which, in some sections, has already become 
serious. 

In the first place, there must be no more mobs. Mobs and mob spirit 
must be eliminated completely, so completely that there will be no danger 
of recurrence. If a negro be charged with a crime, even if it be known 
that he is guilty, he must be given the same fair treatment before the law 
that is accorded the white man. If anything, it would seem that ignorance 
and childishness demand even more consideration than the crime which 
lacks that excuse. 

But more than that, we must be fair to the negro. There is no use 
in beating about the bush; we have not shown that fairness in the past, 
nor are we showing it today, either in justice before the law, in facilities 
accorded for education or in other directions. Argue it as you will, these 
things which we have not done are the things which we must do, or 
Georgia will suffer for it in proportion as she fails.i 

In connection with lynchings there was the general fear of 
mob violence. This fear was taken advantage of by labor agents, 
as the following indicates : 

We are astonished, too, to learn that one of the reasons for this unrest 
among the negroes who were born and reared here is fear that all negroes 
are to be run out of Georgia. This idea, of course, has been planted in 
the minds of the simple minded of the race by the crafty and unscrupulous 
labor agents who have operated in almost every section of the State. 

The negroes have this idea from the fact that there are localities in 
the State right now where a negro can not live. And we do not know of 
anybody that is doing anything to change this condition. 

Labor agents are doing their best to put the fear into the hearts of the 
negroes in this State that they are going to be run out by the white 
people, some of them even fixing the time as next June; but this work 
began long before the negro exodus north was thought of. The example 
of one county in north Georgia, which ran every negro out, was fol- 
lowed by other counties adjoining, and the general public has little idea 

^Atlanta Constitution, December 10, 1916. 



168 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

how widespread the contagion became — for lawlessness is nearly always 
contagious. 

If Georgia is injured, agriculturally and industrially, by the negro exodus, 
the white people here have no one to blame but themselves. They have 
allowed negroes to be lynched, five at a time, on nothing stronger than 
suspicion ; they have allowed whole sections to be depopulated of them ; 
they have allowed them to be whitecapped and whipped, and their homes 
burned, with only the weakest and most spasmodic efforts to apprehend 
or punish those guilty — when any efforts were made at all. 

Has not the negro been given the strongest proof that he has no assured 
right to live, to own property nor to expect justice in Georgia? 

When the negro is gone, his loss will be felt in every large agricultural 
section and every industrial community of the South. For the average 
white man can not do the heavier work at the sawmills, naval stores plants 
and in many lines of manufacture, that is now being done by the negro. 
As a consequence, these plants and many large plantations must stand idle 
or import a class of white labor that will be a great deal worse than the 
black. Confronted with cheap white labor, and white men of a race of 
which they have no understanding — then will the South have its labor 
problems. 

But at present, it seems, little can be done. Unless southern white people 
who have their all invested in agriculture or manufacturing take care of 
their own interest by seeing that the negro gets justice when suspected 
and a fair trial when accused, and assured that so long as he behaves he 
will be guaranteed safety of life and property, it is perhaps as well to let 
the negro go. It will mean an industrial revolution for the South, but the 
present condition of affairs has become intolerable. ^ 

The negroes of the South used both the white and negro 
newspapers of that section in carrying on the discussion of 
the migration movement. The substance of what the negroes 
said through the press was that, first of all, the negroes wanted 
to stay in the South and were going north not only because 
there they could secure better wages than were generally paid 
in the South, but also because they would, in the North, get 
protection and have privileges not accorded in the South. Con- 
cerning the negro wanting to stay in the South, it was pointed 
out that in the South he did have economic opportunity and 
received encouragement. *' The truth is that the negroes who 
are leaving the South in large numbers, and others who are 
thinking of going, do not want to go. They prefer to remain 
here." ' 

'^Georgia Gazette, reprint from Atlanta Constitution, December 10, 1916. 
^ Age Herald, Birmingham, Alabama, September 25, 1916. 



PUBLIC OPINION REGARDING THE MIGRATION 169 

It was pointed out that the passing of stringent labor laws 
would not stop the exodus. The negro could not be kept in the 
South by force. 

Various communities [said a negro] are passing stringent laws with 
the view of making the business of agents either impracticable or impos- 
sible. This will ultimately have the very opposite effect of what was 
intended. I am a negro and know the deeper thoughts and feelings of 
my own people. I know their yearnings and the religious zeal with which 
they look forward to the future for better days, and to other climes than 
this for better conditions. 

Now to pass severe laws to block this movement will not only be a waste 
of time, but the most unwise way of dealing with the problem. The problem 
can not be solved from the angle of force. 

In order for the negro to be kept in the South he must be made to see, 
to feel, that on the whole it will be better for him to remain in the South 
than to migrate to the North. Stop lynching. Teach us to love the South 
and be contented here by ceasing to abridge us in such extremes in com- 
mon rights and citizenship. 

Another method of helping to keep the negro in the South is for the 
better class of whites to get hold of the negroes. In a word, there should 
be cooperation between the races. The negroes should be given better 
schools and the whites should set before the negroes better examples of 
law and order. The North is offering better homes, better schools and 
justice before the law. The South can do the same. 

" One of our grievances," said a negro correspondent of the 
Chattanooga Timcs,^ " is that in colored localities we have very 
bad streets, no lights, no sewerage system, and sanitary condi- 
tions are necessarily bad. Give the negro the right kind of a 
show, living wages, consider him as a man, and he will be 
contented to remain here." 

A good presentation of the negroes' side of the case is given 
in the following letter from a negro minister to the Montgomery 
Advertiser.- He wrote : 

Why should the South raise such objections to the jobless man seeking 
the manless job, especially when it has held that jobless man up to the 
ridicule of the world as trifling, shiftless and such a burden to the South? 
Now the opportunity has come to the negro to relieve the South of some 
of its burden, and at the same time advance his own interests, a great hue 
and cry is started that it must not be allowed, and the usual and foolish 
method of repressive legislation is brought into play. 

1 Weldon Victor Jenkins, in Chattanooga Times, October 10, 1916. 

2 The Advertiser, Montgomery, Alabama, October 7, 1916. 



170 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

Addressing the editor of the Advertiser^ another negro cor- 
respondent said : 

I have read with profound interest the many articles published in your 
paper upon the great negro exodus from the South. 

The negro has remained in the South almost as a solid mass since his 
emancipation. This in itself shows that he loves the South, and if he is 
now migrating to the East, North and West by the hundreds and thousands, 
there must be a cause for it. We should do our best to find out these 
causes and at least suggest the remedy. 

The time has come for plain speaking on the part of all. It will do us 
no good to try to hide the facts, because " truth crushed to earth will rise 
again." In the first place, the negro in this country is oppressed. This 
oppression is greatest where the negro population is greatest. The negro 
population happens to be greater in the South than in the North, there- 
fore, he is more oppressed in the South than in the North. 

Take the counties in our State. Some are known as white counties 
and others as black counties. In the white counties the negro is given 
better educational opportunities than in the black counties. I have in 
mind one Black Belt county where the white child is given $15 per year 
for his education and the negro child only 30 cents a year. See the 
late Booker T. Washington's article, "Is the Negro Having a Fair Chance?" 
Now these facts are generally known throughout this State by both white 
and black. And we all know that it is unjust. It is oppression. 

This oppression shows itself in many ways. Take for example the 
railroads running through the rural sections of the South. There are 
many flag stations where hundreds of our people get off and on the train. 
The railroads have little stops at the platform about six feet square; only 
one coach stops at this point ; the negro women, girls and boys are com- 
pelled to get off and on the train sometimes in water and in the ditches 
because there are no provisions made for them otherwise. 

Again take the matter of the franchise. We all agree that ignorant 
negroes should not be intrusted with this power, but we all feel that where 
a negro has been smart and industrious in getting an education and property 
and pays his taxes, he should be represented. Taxation without representa 
tion is just as unjust today as it was in 1776. It is just as unfair for the 
negro as it is to the white man, and we all, both white and black, know 
this. We may shut our eyes to this great truth, as sometimes we do, but 
it is unjust just the same. 

Take the matter of the courts. There is no justice unless the negro has 
a case against another negro. When he has a case against a white man, 
you can tell what the decision will be just as soon as you know the nature 
of the case, unless some strong white man will come to the negro's rescue. 
This, too, is generally known and the negro does not expect justice. 

As yet, there h&is been no concerted action on the part of the white people 
to stop mob violence. I know a few plantations, however, where the owners 
will not allow their negroes to be arrested without the officer first consult- 
ing them, and these negroes idolize these white men as gods, and so far 



PUBLIC OPINION REGARDING THE MIGRATION 171 

not one of these negroes has gone north. I repeat there are outcroppings 
of these oppressions everywhere in this country, but they show themselves 
most where the negroes are in the largest numbers. But all of this the 
negro is perfectly willing to endure, and they all may be classed as the 
secondary cause of this great exodus. 

The primary cause is economic. The storms and floods of last July 
and August destroyed practically all crops in a large part of the South, 
and especially in the Black Belt section. These people are hungry, they 
are naked, they have no corn and had no cotton, so they are without food 
and clothes. What else can they do but go away in search of work? 
There are a great many wealthy white men here and there throughout 
the Black Belt section. They have large plantations which need the ditches 
cleared and new ones made to properly drain their farms. They could 
have given work to these destitute people; but what have they done? 
Nothing. They say that it is a pity for the negro to go away in such 
large numbers, and so it is, but that will not stop them. They have it 
in their power to stop them by making the negro's economic condition better 
here. 

Thus far the average white man of the South has been interested in 
the negro from a selfish point of view; he must now become interested 
in him from a humanitarian point of view. He must be interested in his 
educational, moral and religious welfare. We know that we have many 
ignorant, vicious and criminal negroes which are a disgrace to any people, 
but they are ignorant because they have not had a chance. Why, I know 
one county in this State today with 10,000 negro children of school age, 
and only 4,000 of these are in school, according to the report of the Super- 
intendent of Education. We can not expect ignorant people to act hke 
intelligent ones, and no amount of abuse will make them better. 

Sometimes we hear it said that the white man of the South knows the 
negro better than anybody else, but the average white man of the South 
only knows the ignorant, vicious and criminal negro better than anybody 
else. He knows little of the best class of negroes. I am glad to say, 
however, that there are a few southern white men who know the better 
class, and know them intimately, and are doing what they can to better 
the negro's condition. I would to God that the number of these few could 
be increased a hundredfold. ^ 

R. R. Wright, President of the Georgia State Industrial Col- 
lege for Negroes, in a discussion of the causes of the migration 
movement stated that it is undoubtedly true that the higih 
wages offered is the main cause. There are other aiding causes, 
however, for this movement besides low wages. 

Naturally the negro is peculiarly adapted to a southern cli- 

iW. J. Edwards, Principal of Snow Hill Normal and Industrial Institute 
(Colored), Snow Hill, Alabama, in the Advertiser, Montgomery, Alabama, 
January 27, 1917. 



172 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

mate and prefers to remain in the South. He has made his best 
progress in the South. There are nearly a miUion negro farm 
operators and most of them are in the South. The total acreage 
of their farms is 42,279,510: valued at $1,141,792,526. In 
the value of farms operated there was an increase of 128.5 per 
cent, during the last census decade, while the value of farm 
property operated by white farmers for the same time increased 
only 99.6 per cent. The negro is prospering in the South. Now 
this and other facts constitute for the negro a strong tie to 
the southern soil. 

This tie should not be broken lightly. The negro does not want to leave 
the South. The only thing to break this tie is unfair and cruel treatment 
of the negro on the part of the white man. In this connection our white 
friends should know that not only in the lynchings, and in the courts 
and in the unwholesome conditions on the southern railway common carriers 
(as vital as these are), but that in the general attitude of many of our 
southern white people, there is exhibited a contempt for the negro which 
makes the best of the negroes feel that they are only tolerated in the 
South. And yet in their individual relations there is no better friend to the 
negro in the world than the southern white man. In the face of our 
friends it is hard to explain this discounting and this contemptuous attitude, 
and yet everybody understands that it exists. " You are only a negro 
and are not entitled to the courteous treatment accorded to members of 
other races." Another cause is the feeling of insecurity. The lack of 
legal protection in the country is a constant nightmare to the colored 
people who are trying to accumulate a comfortable little home and farm. 

There is scarcely a negro mother in the country who does not live in 
dread and fear that her husband or son may come in unfriendly contact 
with some white person so as to bring the lynchers or the arresting officers 
to her door, which may result in the wiping out of her entire family. It 
must be acknowledged that this is a sad condition. 

The southern white man ought to be willing to give the negro a man's 
chance without regard to his race or color; give him at least the same 
protection of law given to any one else. If he will not do this, the negro 
must seek those north or west who will give him better wages and better 
treatment.^ 

One of the most thoughtful discussions of the causes of 
migration was by W. T. Andrews, a negro lawyer and editor, 
formerly of Sumter, South Carolina. In an address before the 
1917 South Carolina Race Conference he said: 

1 Reprinted from the Morning Nezvs, Savannah, Georgia, January 3, 1917. 



PUBLIC OPINION REGARDING THE MIGRATION 173 

In my view the chief causes of negro unrest and disturbance are as 
follows: the destruction of his political privileges and curtailment of his 
civil rights ; no protection of life, liberty and property under the law ; 
Jim Crow car ; residential and labor segregation laws ; no educational 
facilities worthy of the name in most of the southern States. These, I 
believe, are the most potent causes which are now impelling the southern 
negro to seek employment and find homes in northern and western sections 
of the country. 

In South Carolina, and I believe it is ■ equally true of every southern 
State, except those classed as "border States," statute after statute has 
been passed to curtail the rights of the negro, but in not a single instance 
can a law be pointed to which was enacted for the purpose of enlarging 
his opportunity, surrounding himself and his family with the protection 
of the law, or for the betterment of his condition. On the contrary every 
law passed relating to the negro has been passed with the intent of con- 
trolling his labor and drawing his circle of freedom into smaller and smaller 
compass. 

In the rural districts the negro is not only at the mercy of the lawless 
white individual citizen, but equally at the mercy of the rural police, the 
constables and magistrates. There is hardly a record in modern history 
of greater oppression by judicial officers than that dealt to the negroes by 
a large majority of the magistrates and other officials who preside over 
the inferior courts of South Carolina. 

In towns and cities, as a rule, mayors' and recorders' courts are mills 
for grindmg out negro convicts; negroes charged with petty offenses are 
brought into these courts, convicted and sentenced with lightning speed, 
before they even realize that they are on trial unless they are able to hire 
attorneys, whose fees often equal the fine that would be imposed. They 
are beaten at will by arresting officers, frequently shot and many killed 
if attempt is made to escape by runnmg away from the officer, and for 
any such shooting, officers are seldom put to the mconvenience of trial, 
even if the victim die. 

In tragic truth it must be confessed that there is in the South — South 
Carolina, more certainly — no protection for the life or person of any negro 
of whatever standing, sex, age, against the intent of the bloody-minded 
white man. 

The negro does not ask for special privileges or social legislation in his 
behalf. He does not ask to be measured by any standard less than 
the white man's standard, but he insists that the same test shall apply to 
all men of all races. He refuses to accept the declaration of men who claim 
to be earthly agents and representatives of the Almighty, the interpreters 
of His will and laws, and who solemnly assert that the God of the Chris- 
tian ordained and decreed the negro race to be in slavery or semislavery 
to the white race. 

The negro believes that the world is built on a moral foundation with 
justice as its basic rock. He believes that the Almighty is just, merciful 
and benevolent, and that He included all men in His plan of human devel- 
opment and reaching out for protection. 



174 NEGRO MIGRATION DURING THE WAR 

He asks only for justice. Nothing less than justice will stay the move- 
ment of negroes from the South. Its continued refusal will drive in the 
next two years a third or more of its negro population to other portions 
of the country.i^ 

1 From an address by W. T. Andrews at the South Carolina Race Con- 
ference, Columbia, South Carolina, February 8, 1917. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 
Books and Periodicals 

A Century of Negro Migration. C. G. Woodson, Washington, 1918. 

The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh. Abraham Epstein, Pittsburgh, 1918. 

-Negro Newcomers in Detroit. G. E. Haynes, New York, 1918. 

The Migration of a Race, 1916-1917, Annual Report of National League on 
Urban Conditions among Negroes. 

The 1917 Report of the Chicago Branch of the National League on Urban 
Conditions among Negroes. 

Negro Migration: What Does It Mean? Gilbert N. Brink (pamphlet issued 
by American Baptist Home Mission Society. New York). 

Negro Migration. Neiv Republic, January 1, 1916. 
SHow the War Brings Unprophesied Opportunities to the Negro Race. Cur- 
rent Opinion, December, 1916. 

Negro Moving North. Literary Digest, October 7, 1916. 
^ Cotton Pickers in Northern Cities. H. B, Pendleton, Survey, February 17, 
1917. 

Exodus in America. Living Age, October 6, 1917. 

Lure of the North for Negroes. Survey, April 7, 1917. 

Negroes Come North. K. Moses, Forum, August. 1917. 

Negroes Go North. R. S. Baker, World's Work. July, 1917. 

Negro Migration. P. H. Stone, Outlook, August 1, 1917. 

Negro Migration as the South Sees It. Survey, August 11, 1917. 

Passing of the Jim Crow. W. E. B. DuBois, Independent, July 14, 1917. 

Reasons Why Negroes Go North. Survey, June 2, 1917. 

South Calling Negroes Back. Literary Digest, June 2i, 1917. 

Southern Negroes Moving North. World's Work, June, 1917. 

Welcoming Southern Negroes ; East St. Louis and Detroit a Contrast. 
F. B. Washington, Survey, July 14, 1917. 

When Labor Is Cheap. B. M. Edens, Survey, September 8, 1917. 

Interstate Migration. W. O. Scroggs, Journal Political Economy, December, 
1917. 

Negroes Move North. G. E. Haynes, Survey, May 4, 1918. 

Negroes a Source of Industrial Labor. D. T. Farnham, Industrial Manage- 
ment, August, 1918. 

Negro Welfare Workers in Pittsburgh. Survey, August 3, 1918. 

Negroes and Organized Labor. Survey. February 9, 1918. 

Negro and the New Economic Conditions. R. R. Moton, Proceedings 
National Conference of Social Workers, 1917. 

Migration of Negroes into Northern Cities. G. E. Haynes, National Con- 
ference of Social Workers, 1917. 

Progress of Work for the Assimilation of Negro Immigrants in Northern 
Cities. F. B. Washington, National Conference of Social Workers, 1917. 

Negro Migration. Ralph W. Tyler. Pearsons, November, 1917. 

Southern Labor as Affected by the War and Migration. Monroe N. Work, 
Proceedings of Southern Sociological Congress, 1918. 

The Duty of Southern Labor during the War. R. R. Moton, Proceedings 
Southern Sociological Congress, 1918. 

The Foundation (Atlanta), May-June, 1917. 

175 



1T6 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

A. M. E. Church Review (Philadelphia), January, 1917; April, 1918. 

Voice of Missions (New Vork City), June, 1917. 

Causes of Migration from the South. W. T. Andrews, Address at Race 

Conference, Columbia (S. C), February 8, 1917. Specially printed. 
The Massacre of East St. Louis. Martha Gruening and W. E. B. DuBois, 

The Crisis, September, 1917. 
The Crisis, October, 1916, page 270; June, 1917, pages 63, 65. 
The Nation, September 6; December 7, 1916.- 

The Problem of the xXegro Laborer. Iroyi Trade Review, April 12, 1917. 
Negro Migration Ebbs. Iron Trade Revieiv, December 13, 1917. 
Proceedings of Annual Convention of Federation of Labor, 1916, 1917, 1918. 

Newspapers 

(References for 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918)i 

Akron (Ohio) Press, July 12, 1917. 

Albany (N. Y.) Argus, Nov. 12, 1916. 

Albany (N. Y.) Journal, August 6, 1917. 

Albany (N. Y.) Knickerbocker Press, Dec. 21, 1916; Mar. 11, 26, 1917. 

Amsterdam (New York City) News, May 28, June 18, 1915; Apr. 17, 

July 14, Aug. 18, Oct. 1, Dec. 13, 1916; Jan. 24, Aug. 1, 1917; Apr. 10. 

May 1, June 5, July 10, 24, Sept. 18, Oct. 2, 1918. 
Artisan (Jacksonville, Fla.), Aug. 5, 1916. 
Ashland (Ohio) Press, Aug. 22, 1917, 
Asheville (N. C.) Citizen, July 11, 1917. 
Atlanta Constitution, Aug. 23, 28, 1915 ; Sept. 13. 23, Oct. 10, 16, 18, 22, 24, 

Nov. 1, 4, 24, 26, 28, Dec. 1, 2. 4, 7, 8, 13, 21, 29. 1916; Jan. 8, 10, Mar. 10, 

26, 31, May 14, 23, 26. 27, 29-31, June 5. 6, 11. 16, July 7, 13-15, Aug. 13, 

30, Sept. 1, Oct. 24-26, Nov. 11, 21. 1917; Feb. 27, Mar. 2, Apr. 2, 4-6, 

9, 17, 20, 24, 25, May 2, 7, 10, 21, 26, 27, June 2, 7, 8, 18, 22, 29, 

July 10, 15, 16, 18, 19, 25, 27, 28, Aug. 2-4, 10, 15, 19, 21, 25, 26, 30, 

Sept. 1, 21, 1918. 
Atlanta (Ga.) Independent, Dec. 2, 9, 16, 23, 1916; Feb. 24, Mar. 31, May 9, 

19, 26, June 30, July 21, 1917; Mar. 22, July 20, 27, Aug. 3, 17, 31, 1918. 
Atlanta (Ga.) Journal, Oct. 8, 1917, Mar. 28, 1918. 
Atlanta (Ga.) Post. June 26. Aug. 9, 1917. 

Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, Feb. 18, 19, Dec. 9, 1917; Mar. 29, 1918. 
Aurora (111.) News, Feb. 7, 1918. 
Bahimore Afro-American, Jan. 26, Sept. 29, 1917; Apr. 19, May 24, June 21, 

1918. 
Baltimore American, Nov. 17, 1916; Aug. 9, 1918. 
Baltimore News. Aug. 13, 1915: Nov. 17, 1916; Apr. 3, 1918. 
Baltimore Sun, Mar. 1. 1915; Sept. 21, Nov. 1, 20, 1916; Apr. 1, Aug. 13, 

1917; Mar. 13, 1918. 
Bath (Me.) Times, July 31, 1917. 

Beaumont (Tex.) Enterprise. Sept. 2, 1917; June 20, 1918. ' 
Beaumont (Tex.) Journal, June 24, 1917. 
Beloit (Wis.) News, Aug. 25. 1916; Apr. 24. 1918. 
Birmingham (Ala.) Age-Herald. Mar. 20, Sept. 25, Nov. 9, Dec. 2, 1916; 

Mar. 21, Apr. 2, Dec. 24, 1917. 
Birmingham (Ala.) Ledger, May 3, 21, 24, 31, July 31, Sept. 27, 1917; 

Apr. 23, 1918. 
Birmingham (Ala.) News, Aug. 31. 1917; June 21, 1918. 

1 The newspaper discussion of the migration had its beginning in 1915 
in statements about the conditions of negro labor in the South and the 
outlook for it in the North. The discussion was continued in the 1918 news- 
papers. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 177 

Birmingham (Ala.) Reporter, July 28, 1917; Aug. 10, 17, Sept. 28, Oct. 5, 

1918. 
Boston Christian Science IMonitor, May 24, 1916; Jan. 4, July 10, 27, Sept. 25, 

1917; Jan. 28, 1918. 
Boston Globe, Mar. 23, 1917; Mar. 30, 1918. 
Boston Guardian, May 6, Aug. 22, 21, Oct. 10, 1916; Feb. 3, June 16, 

Aug. 4, 25, Oct. 6. 1917. 
Boston Herald, Mar. 23. July 5, Sept. 13, 1917. 
Boston Post, Feb. 26, 1917. 

Boston Transcript, July 13, Dec. 15, 1916; Mar. 10, 31, Apr. 3, July 3, 7, 1917. 
Bridgeport (Conn.) Farmer, Jan. 8, 1917. 

Bridgeport (Conn.) Post, Oct. 7, Nov. 21, 1916; June 24, 1917; Jan. 24, 1918. 
Bristol (Va.) Courier, July 29, 1917. 
Bronx (N. Y.) Record and Times, Oct. 20, 1917. 

Brooklyn Eagle, Aug. 10, 1917; iMar. 28, May 12, 21, July 25, Oct. 6, 1918. 
Brunswick (Ga.) Banner, Oct. 10, 1917. 
Buffalo (N. Y.) Courier, Sept. 16, 1917. 
Buffalo (N. Y.) Express, Apr. 14, Oct. 23, Nov. 17, Dec. 7, 1916; June 15, 

1917; Apr. 2, 1918. 
Buffalo (N. Y.) News, Jan. 1, Aug. 31. 1917; June 18, 1918. 
Buffalo (N. Y.) Times, Dec. 7, 1916; Nov. 20, 1917. 
Burlington (Vt.) Free Press, Oct. 14, 1916. 
Camden (N. J.) Courier, Apr. 30, 1918. 
Charleston ( S. C.) News and Courier, Oct. 26, Nov. 6, Dec. 18, 20, 1916; 

Jan. 2, Feb. 1, 23, Mar. 14, 1917. 
Charlotte (N. C.) News, Mar. 11, 1918. 
Charlotte (N. C.) Observer, July 17, Sept. 2, 1917; Mar. 28, Apr. 13, May 23, 

June 21, Sept. 21, 1918. 
Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times, Dec. 15, 1916; Dec. 7, 1917. 
Chester (S. C.) News, Aug. 13, 1918. 
Chicago American, Nov. 20, 1916. 
Chicago Defender, Mar. 16, 23, 30, Apr. 5, 27, 1915; every issue for 1916; 

every issue for 1917; almost every issue to Oct., 1918. 
Chicago Examiner, Oct. 9, 1916: Mar. 30, July 19. 1917. 
Chicago Herald. Oct. 13, 1916; Mar. 4, 19, July 3, 5, Oct. 10, Nov. 17, 1917. 
Chicago Idea, June 30, 1917. 
Chicago Journal, May 30, July 19, 1918. 
Chicago News, Dec. 11, 13, 1916; Jan. 13. Mar. 20, 30, Apr. 21, July 31, 

Sept. 14. 1917; Jan. 15, Apr. 29, July 13, Aug. 7, 1918. 
Chicago Tribune, July 25. 1916; June 9, July 8, 10, 26, Sept. 14, Oct. 27, 

1917: February 13. 1918. 
Christian Century (Chicago), July 25, 1918. 
Christian Index (Jackson, Tenn.), June 21, July 19, Oct. 18, 1917; Feb. 21, 

Aug. 8, 1918. 
Christian Recorder (Philadelphia), Aug. 3, 17, Sept. 14, Oct. 26, Nov. 9, 15, 

Dec. 21, 1916: Jan. 4, Feb. 1, Mar. 10. June 7 (special edition), Aug. 2, 

Sept. 20, 27. 1917; Jan. 24, Mar. 28, Apr. 11, 25, May 9, Aug. 1, 8, 15, 22, 

Sept. 19, 1918. 
Cincinnati Commercial Tribune, Aug. 5. 10, Dec. 5, 1917; June 11. 1918. 
Cincinnati Enquirer. Aug. 23, Oct. 30, 1916; Feb. 28, Mar. 26, Sept. 8, 12, 

1917; July 31. 1918. 
Cincinnati Post, Oct. 5, 1917. 
Cincinnati Star, Sept. 12. 1917. 
Cincinnati Union. Sept. IS, 1917. 
Cleveland Advocate, Oct. 5, Sept. 14. 1915: Aug. 10, Nov. 11, 1917; Mar. 30, 

June 8. July 4. 27. Aug. 3. 10. 17. 1918. 
Cleveland Leader, June 7, Dec. 8, 1916; July 10, 1917. 
Cleveland News, Aug. 11, 1917. 
Cleveland Plain Dealer, Oct. 19, 1916; Aug. 4, Sept. 12, Oct. 25, Dec. 6, 

1917; Feb. 14, 1918. 



178 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Cleveland Press, Apr. 18, Oct. 25, 1917. 

Columbia (S. C.) State, Oct. 2, 3, 7, 19, 23, Nov. 1, 15, Dec. 17, 22, 1916; 

Jan. 8, Feb. 2, Mar. 2, July 15, Oct. 20, Dec. 10, 1917 ; Mar 10, 1918. 
Columbus (Ohio) Citizen, July 7, Aug. 7, Sept. 24, 1917. 
Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, July 8, Aug. 1, 20, Sept. 3, 20, 1917; May 8, 

June 30, 1918. 
Columbus (Ga.) Enquirer-Sun, Nov. 21, Dec. 2, 17, 1916. 
Columbus (Ohio) State Journal, Aug. 2, 21, 22, Oct. 10, Nov. 8, 1917: 

Aug. 6, 1918. 
Cumberland (Md.) Times, July 7, 1917; Apr. 9, 1918. 
Dallas (Tex.) Baptist Standard, Aug. 17, 1916. 
Dallas (Tex.) Democrat, July 28, 1917. 

Dallas (Tex.) Express, July 14, 21, Aug. 11, 25, 1917; July 20, 1918. 
Dallas (Tex.) Journal, May 10, June 7, Sept. 24, 1918. 
Dallas (Tex.) New Era, June 14, 1917. 
Dallas (Tex.) News, Aug. 1, 1917; May 14, 16, 1918. 
Dayton (Ohio) News, July 7, 30, Aug. 1, 1917; May 7, 1918. 
Deep River (Conn.) Era, Nov. 9, 1918. 
Denver (Col.) Star, July 28, 1917. 
Detroit Free Press, June 18, Nov. 6, Oct. 23, 1916; Sept. 7, 1917; Mar. 23, 

Apr. 27, Sept. 28, 1918. 
Detroit Journal, Nov. 15, 1916; June 20, Aug. 6, 1917. 
Detroit News, Aug. 12, 1916; Oct. 21, 1917; Apr. 2, 7, May 19, 25, Sept. 13, 

16, 1918. 
Detroit News Tribune. Aug. 12, Nov. 19, 1916. 
Detroit Times, Apr. 12, 20, June 29, 1918. 
Dublin (Ga.) Herald, July 26, 1917. 
Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune, Oct. 9, Nov. 9, 1916. 
Elizabeth City (N. C.) Independent, Nov. 30, 1917. 
Elmira (N. Y.) Advertiser, Feb. 9, 1917. 
Evansville (Ind.) Courier, June 21, 1917. 
Fort Wayne (Ind.) Journal-Gazette, Oct. 22, 1916; Oct. 11, 1917; Aug. 22, 

1918. 
Forth Worth (Tex.) Star-Telegram, Oct. 16, 1917. 
Fort Worth (Tex.) Record, Oct. 6, 1916; Mar. 27, July 22, Nov. 3, 1917; 

May 4, Aug. 11, Sept. 22, 1918. 
Galveston (Tex.) News, July 11, Aug. 3, 12, 17, 1917; Jan. 6, Sept. 20, 

1918. 
Grand Rapids (Mich.) Press, Sept. 10, 1917. 

Greenville (S. C.) News. Apr. 3, 1^16; Mar. 29, June 18, Sept. 10, 1917. 
Hackensack (N. J.) Record, Apr. 4, 1917. 
Harrisburg (Pa.) Patriot, July 7, 1917. 
Hartford (Conn.) Courant, Aug. 7, Dec. 18, 1916; Feb. 15, Sept. 19, 1917; 

Feb. 22, 25, Mar. 17, 1918. 
Hartford (Conn.) Post, Mar. 17, Sept. 15, 18, Oct. 9, 15, 17, 18, 1917. 
Hartford (Conn.) Times, Jan. 11, July 12, Oct. 9, 1917; Apr. 23, May 24, 

Henderson (Ky.) Gleaner. Aug. 24, 1916. 

Hoboken (N. J.) Observer, Oct. 18, 1917. 

Hotel Gazette (New York City), Oct. 20, 1917; July 13, 20, 1918. 

Houston (Tex.) Chronicle, July 22, 1917. 

Houston (Tex.) Observer, Oct. 21, 1916; July 7, Oct. 27, 1917; May 18, 

21, June 8, Aug. 3, 17, 1918. 
Houston (Tex.) Post, files for 1916; files for 1917; June 20, July 29, 

Aug. 31. 1918. 
Houston (Tex.) Press, Aug. 14. 1917. 
Holyoke (Mass.) Transcript, July 10, 28, 1917. 
Indianapolis Freeman, Nov. 26, Dec. 9, 1916; Jan. 6, 13, Mar. 31, June 2, 

Oct. 13, 21, 1917; Feb. 9, Mar. 2, May 25. June 6, 29, July 26, 1918. 
Indianapolis Ledger, July 16, Sept. 9, 1916; June 9, 1917. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 179 

Indianapolis News, Nov. 9, 1915: Nov. 16, 22, 24, Dec. 8, 1916; Jan. 23 

1917; June 7, July 24, 31, 1918. 
Indianapolis Star, Sept. 21, 1918. 
Indianapolis World, Dec. 9, 1916. 

Jacksonville (Fla.) Metropolis, Dec. 22, 1916. 

Jacksonville (Fla.) Times Union, Aug. 14, Nov. 10, Dec. 22, 1916; Jan. 20, 

1917; Apr. 4, 1918. 
Jackson (Miss.) News, June 12, Nov. 11, 1917; May 7, 1918. 

Jersey City (N. J.) Journal, June 30, Oct. 10, 18, 1917; July 19, 1918. 

Johnstown (Pa.) Democrat, Nov. 2, 1916. 
Kansas City (Kan.) Globe, Aug. 25, 1917. 

Kansas City (Mo.) Star, Aug. 17, 1916; Mar. 11, 1917; Mar. 9, 1918. 

Kansas City (Mo.) Sun, Aug. 11, Sept. 8, 1917. 

Kansas City (Mo.) Times, Apr. 6, 1918. 

Knoxville (Tenn.) Journal-Tribune, Aug. 3, Sept. 23, 1916. 

Lancaster (Pa.) Labor Leader, Sept. 1, 1917. 

Louisville Courier Journal, July 18, Dec. 5, 1916 ; Mar. 28, 1917 ; Aug. 4. 5, 
7, 1918. 

Louisville News, Sept. 9, 1916; Sept. 15, 22, 1917; Feb. 23, Mar. 9, June 1, 
July 6, 1918. 

Louisville Times, Sept. 29, 1916; Aug. 6, 14, 16, Sept. 11, 1918. 

Macon (Ga.) News, Feb. 14, Apr. 30, May 5, Aug. 27, Sept. 1, 29, 1918. 

Macon (Ga.) Telegraph, Sept. 5, Oct. 10, 1916; Feb. 18, Mar. 18, June 14, 
Nov. 21, 1917; Jan. 28, Aug. 7, 17, Sept. 3. 22, 1918. 

Manufacturers Record (Baltimore), June 29, 1916. 

Marietta (Ohio) Leader, Aug. 7, 1917. 

Mason City (Iowa) Globe-Gazette, Oct. 24, 1917. 

Memphis Commercial Appeal, Aug. 20, Oct. 5, 24, 1916; Sept. 9, 1917; 
Jan. 5, Apr. 6, May 1, 9, 27, 1918. 

Memphis Press, July 5, 1917; Apr. 4, Sept. 20, 1918. 

Meridian (Miss.) Dispatch, June 25, 1918. 

Meridian (Miss.) Star, Jan. 4. Aug. 7, 1917. 

Michigan Tradesman (Grand Rapids), Dec. 12, 1917. 

Milwaukee (Wis.) Journal, Jan. 11, 1917; May 30, 1918. 

Milwaukee (Wis.) Leader, July 13, 1917; Mar. 29, 1918. 

Milwaukee (Wis.) Sentinel, Sept. 22, 1916; July 27, Oct. 5, 1917. 

Milwaukee (Wis.) Wisconsin, Oct. 3, 1916. 

Minneapolis (Minn.) Journal, July 12. 1917; June 11, 12, 13, 14, 1918. 

Mobile (Ala.) Register, Jan. 4, Aug. 19, 1917; Apr. 27, 1918. 

Montgomery (Ala.) Advertiser, Jan. 5, 1915; Mar. 5, 17, Aug. 5, 9, 20, 23, 24, 
Sept. 10, 15, 17, 19-21, 24, 27, 29, Oct. 4, 16, 25, 29, Nov. 5, 7, 8, 22, 
Dec. 7, 9, 10, 12, 17, 19, 21, 27, 31, 1916: Jan. 6. 9, 13. 16. 23, 25, 27, 
Feb. 1, 7, 14, Mar. 2, Apr. 22, May 5, 12, 21. 24. 30, 31, June 1. 2, 6, 11, 
Sept. 26, Oct. 1, 1917; Jan. 20, Feb. 3, 8, 10, 18, Apr. 23-26, 29, May 2, 
4, 6, 27, June 2, 3, 6, 18, 27, 29, July 5, 26, 31, Aug. 1-3, 10, 11, 23, 27, 
Sept. 4, 13, 1918. 

Nashville (Tenn.) Banner, Aug. 31, Nov. 4, 14, 17, 1916; Mar. 1, 28, Oct. 7, 
Nov. 25, 1917; June 15, 1918. 

Nashville (Tenn.) Globe, Apr. 20, 1917; Feb. 15, Mar. 29, 1918. 

Nashville (Tenn.) Tennesseean, Aug. 27, Sept. 1, Oct. 2, 22, 1916. 

National Enquirer, July 25, 1918. 

Newark (N. J.) Ledger, Apr. 11, 18. 1918. 

Newark (N. J.) News, Mar. 10, 17, 29, Sept. 24, 28, Oct. 2, 10, 30, 1917; 
Feb. 20, Mar. 26, Apr. 9, July 19, Sept. 28. 1918. 

Newark (N. J.) Star, July 31, 1915; Nov. 20. 1916; Oct. 5, 9, Nov. 6, 9, 1917. 

New Bedford (Mass.) Mercury, Julv 20. 1917. 

New Bedford (Mass.) Standard, July 19. 1917. 

New Britain (Conn.) Herald, Sept. 11, 1917. 

New Haven (Conn.) Register, Sept. 11, 1917. 

New Orleans Item, Sept. 8, 11, 1917; Feb. 10, Mar. 31, May 13, 15, 20, 1918. 



180 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

New Orleans Times-Picayune, Oct. 1, 19, 26. Nov. 10, 28, Dec. 9, 12, IS, 18. 

1916; Jan. 1, 14, Mar. 9, 24, June 13, Sept. 4, 8, 15, 21, Oct. 5, 1917; 

Apr. 7, 30, May 12, 16, June 14, Sept. 21, 1918. 
New Orleans States, July 24, Aug. 7, 28, Oct. 10, 1916; Nov. 3, 1917; Jan. 21, 

Apr. 6, July 23, 1918. 
Newport (R. I.) News, Sept. 1, 1917. 

New Philadelphia (Ohio) Times, Oct. 26, 1917; Mar. 17, 1918. 
New York Age, Feb. 11, 18, Mar. 4, May 11, Aug. 19, 1915; May 24, 

July 20, 27, Aug. 24, 31, Sept. 14, Oct. 26, Nov. 15, 23, 30, Dec. 14, 21. 

1916; Jan. 4, 11, Feb. 1, 8, 15, 22, Mar. 1, 15, 22. Apr. 5. 19, May 3, 10, 24. 

June 7, 14, 21. July 5, 26, Aug. 21, Sept. 20, Oct. 10, 11. 18, Nov. 1, 8, 22, 29. 

Dec. 22, 1917 ; Jan. 26, 29, Feb. 9, 16, Mar. 2, 9, 23, 30. Apr. 6, 20, 21, 27. 

May 4, 11, 18, 25, June 2, 8, 20, 22, 29, July 6, 13, 15, Aug. 10, Sept. 14, 

21, 28, Oct. 5, 1918. 
New York American. July 16, 17, Aug. 12, Sept. 20, 1917 ; June 23, 1918. 
New York Call, Feb. 28, Sept. 15, 1915; Sept. 30, Oct. 10, Nov. 16, 29. 

Dec. 3. 1916; July 1, Aug. 8, 9, Sept. 28, Nov. 13, 22, 1917; Mar. 5. 

Apr. 26, May 30, June 8, 24, Aug. 26, 1918. 
New York Commerce and Finance, Sept. 13, Nov. 8, 1916; Mar. 27, 1918. 
New York Commercial, Oct. 24, 1916; July 14, 1917. 
New York Globe, Feb. 10, 18. Mar. 12. 1915; July 31, Oct. 25, Nov. 13, 

Dec. 6, 1916; Mar. 19, Apr. 9, Aug. 20, Oct. 9, 1917; June 5, Oct. 1, 

1918. 
New York Herald, June 10, 1917. 

New York Journal, July 14, Aug. 25, 27, Oct. 12, 1916; Oct. 4, 11, 1917. 
New York Journal of Commerce, Aug. 14, 1917. 
New York Mail, Feb. 27, 1915; Nov. 1, 1916; Aug. 1, Sept. 20, 1917; 

Feb. 6, 12, Mar. 11, 15, 18, Apr. 30, July 1. May 3, 1918. 
New York News, Mar. 4, 1915; Apr. 13, Sept. 11, 29, Dec. 21, 1916; Jan. 25. 

Oct. 10, 1917; Feb. 14, Mar. 23, Apr. 10, 11, 25. Aug. 22, 1918. 
New York Post, Dec. 28, 1915; Oct. 5, Nov. 17, Dec. 1, 4, 16, 1916; Feb. 3. 

July 13, 14, 16, Sept. 19, 20, Oct. 15, 25, 29, 1917; Jan. 31, Feb. 15. 

June 22, Sept. 25, 1918. 
New York Sun, Mar. 21, Nov. 19, 22, 1916; Jan. 15, 20, Mar. 21, Apr. 4, 

July 2, Aug. 7, 10, 15, Sept. 21, Oct. 5, Nov. 19, 21, 1917; Jan. 31, 

May 1, 17, June 19, July 1, 2, 7, Sept. 17. 22, 1918. 
New York Telegram, Nov. 16, 1916; Sept. 9, 1918. 
New York Times, June 11, Aug. 17, Sept. 10, Oct. 21, Nov. 5, 12, Dec. 17, 1916; 

Oct. 7, 1917; Jan. 21, Feb. 1, May 25, 1918. 
New York Tribune, Oct. 22, Dec. 24, 1916; July 2, 21, 31. Oct. 16, 1917; 

Jan. 6, May 11, 22, Aug. 26, Sept. 22, 1918. 
New York World, Oct. 29, Nov. 12, 19, 1916; Mar. 21, 1917; Feb. 14, 23, 

Apr. 14, 18, May 21, June 22>, 25, 1918. 
Norfolk (Va.) Journal and Guide, Sept. 9, Oct. 2, Nov. 18, 25, Dec. 2, 16, 

1916; Jan. 23, Feb. 2, 24, Mar. 3, 17, 24, Apr. 14, May 12, June 30, 

July 7, 25. 28, Sept. 11, 15, 22, 29, Oct. 6, 13, 20, Dec. 1, 1917; Feb. 2, 9, 16, 

Mar. 10, 23, 30, July 13, Aug. 10, 1918. 
Norfolk (Va.) Virginian-Pilot, Oct. 20, 1916; Oct. 19, 1917; May 14, 1918. 
Oakland (Cal.) Tribune, July 13, 1917. 
Omaha (Neb.) Bee, Mar. 4, 1917; Mar. 24, 1918. 
Omaha (Neb.) World-Herald, Feb. 3. 1917. 
Oshkosh (Wis.) Daily Northwestern, July 28, 1916. 
Palatka (Fla.) Advocate, Mar. 10, 1917. 
Passaic (N. J.) Herald. Apr. 15, 1918. 
Paterson (N. J.) Guardian, Sept. 22, 1917. 
Peoria (111.) Journal, Nov. 23, 1917. 

Philadelphia Bulletin, Mar. 12, June 29, July 26-28, 30, 31, 1917. 
Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 24, Mar. 2. July 26-31, Dec. 14, 1917; Jan. 31, 1918. 
Philadelphia North American, Aug. 9, 30, Nov. 24, 1916; Feb. 2, Mar. 27, 

July 26-31, 1917. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 181 

Philadelphia Public Ledger, May 11, 1916; Jan. 26, Apr. 6, July 16, 26-31. 

Aug. 26, 1917; Jan. 31, May 27, Aug. 2, 3, 14, 1918. 
Philadelphia Record, Apr. 8, 1915; Dec. 9, 1916; Mar. 2, Apr. 1, July 26-31, 

1917; June 12, 1918. 
Philadelphia Telegraph, Oct. 11, Nov. 21, 1916; July 17, 26-31, 1917. 
Pittsburgh Chronicle, Oct. 17, Dec. 1, 1916. 
Pittsburgh Courier, June 22, 1917. 
Pittsburgh Dispatch, Oct. 1, Dec. 7, 1916; Feb. 26, Mar. 16, Dec. 17, 1917; 

Mar. 7, Apr. 11, 14, 1918. 
Pittsburgh Gazette Times. Nov. 21, 1917; June 28, July 7, 1918. 
Pittsburgh Leader, Nov. 1, Dec. 7, 1916; June 28, 1918. 
Pittsburgh Press, Mar. 28, 29. 1917. 
Pittsburgh Sun, Mar. 26, 1917; Apr. 11, 1918. 
Portland (Me.) Express and Advertiser, Nov. 25, 1916. 
Portland (Me.) Press, Aug. 10, 1917. 
Portland (Ore.) Oregonian, Nov. 7, 1917. 
Providence (R. T.) Bulletin, Nov. 11, 1916; Feb. 13, 1918. 
Providence (R. L) Journal, Aug. 17, 28, Oct. 29, Nov. 9, 20, Dec. 23, 1916; 

Aug. 7, 1918. 
Providence (R. I.) Tribune, Dec. 22. 1917. 
Raleigh (N. C.) Independent, Apr. 28, July 21, Sept. 15, Oct. 27, Dec. 22, 

1917; June 1, 29, 1918. 
Raleigh (N. C.) News and Observer, Aug. 11, Oct. 4, Nov. 14, 1916. 
Reading (Pa.) Telegram, Sept. 7, 1916; July 11, 1917. 
Richmond (Va.) News Leader, July 6, 1917; June 4, 1918. 
Richmond (Va.) Planet. Mar. 10, Apr. 7. 28, May 5, 19, June 23, Aug. 18. 

1917; Feb. 16, 28, Mar. 30. Apr. 20, June 8, July 6, 1918. 
Richmond (Va.) Times-Dispatch, Aug. 26, 1916. 

Rochester (N. Y.) Democrat Chronicle, June 5. 1916; Feb. 18, Mar. 27, 1917. 
Rochester (N. Y.) Post Express, Nov. 11, 17, Dec. 8, 1916; Jan. 8, 1918. 
Rochester (N. Y.) Times, Dec. 11, 1916. 
Rochester (N. Y.) Union and Advertiser, Dec. 8, 1916. 
Rome (N. Y.) Sentinel, Mar. 21, 1917. 
Sacramento (Cal.) Union, June 16, 1917. 
Saginaw (Mich.) Courier-Herald, Mar. 21, 1917. 
St. Joseph (Mo.) News. Feb. 17, 1917. 
St. Louis Argus. Aug. 25, Oct. 20, 1916; Jan. 6. Feb. 9, Mar. 23, June 1, 8, 

Sept. 14, Oct. 5, 1917; Mar. 15, 22, Aug. 9, Sept. 27, Oct. 4, 11. 1918. 
St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Feb. 15, May 30, 31, July 2-18, 1917; March 28, 

1918. 
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Dec. 1, 10, 14, 1916; May 30, 31, July 2-18; Sept. 9, 

Nov. 3, 1917; May 10, 11, July 12. 18, Aug. 28. 1918. 
St. Louis Star, May 30, 31, July 2-6, 8-13, 15-18, 1917. 
St. Louis Times, May 30, 31, July 2-6, 8-13, 15-18, Aug. 11, 28, 1917. 
Salina (Kas.) Union, Aug. 30, 1917. 
Salt Lake City (Utah) Tribune, Mar. 4, 1917. 

San Antonio (Tex.) Light, Sept. 10. 1916; May 14, Sept. 1, 1918. 
San Jose (Cal.) Herald, Aug. 28, 1916. 
Savannah (Ga.) Morning News. July 31, Aug. 2, 1916; Jan. 3, July 18, 1917; 

June 6, 1918. 
Savannah Tribune, Aug. 5. 19, Sept. 9, 23, 30, Nov. 11, Oct. 28. 1916; Feb. 3. 
Mar. 31, Apr. 7. 28, May 10, 12, 17, 19, June 2, July 2, 1917; Feb. 13, 
Mar. 16, Apr. 13, May 20, July 20, 27. Aug. 3, 24, 1918. 
St. Paul (Minn.) News, June 12, 14, 17, 1918. 
St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press, July 9, Oct. 5, 1915; Dec. 1, 1916; Aug. 6, 

1918. 
Scranton (Pa.) News, Mar. 3, 1915. 
Seattle (Wash.) Post, Dec. 15, 1916; Aug. 16, 1917. 
Sharon (Pa.) Herald, Feb. 1, 1917. 
Shreveport (La.) Times, July 18, Aug. 2, Oct. 6, 1917; Mav 28, 1918. 



182 BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Southern Standard (Macon, Ga.), June 16, 1917; May 2, 13, 1918. 
Southwestern Christian Advocate (New Orleans), Dec. 7, 1916; Jan. 4, 11, 

Mar. 1, 22, July 19, Oct. 18, 1917; Mar. 9, May 30, July 25, Aug. 22, 1918. 
Spartanburg (S. C.) Journal, Sept. 11, 1917. 
Spokane (Wash.) (Chronicle, Dec. 11, 1916. 
Soringfield (Mass.) Ne,/s. Mar. 6, 1918. 
Springfield (Ohio) News, Aug. 2. 1917. 
Springfield (Mass.) Republican, May 12, Sept. 8, 10, Nov. 1, 17, 27, Dec. 3, 

1916; Jan. 17, 19, 21, 25, Feb. 15, Mar. 8-11, July 7, Aug. 8, Nov. 27. 

1917; Jan. 20, May 15, 1918. 
Springfield (Mo.) Republican, Sept. 9, 1917; Mar. 14, 1918. 
Springfield (Mass.) Union, Apr. 16, 1915: July 16, Sept. 6, 1916; Apr. 2, 1917. 
Star of Zion (Charlotte, N. C), July 19, Aug. 16, 1917. 
Steubenville (Ohio) Star, Aug. 4, 20, 1917. 
Syracuse (N. Y.) Herald, July 17, 1917. 
Syracuse (N. Y.) Journal, Aug. 4, 1917. 

Syracuse (N. Y.) Post-Standard. Aug. 2, 1916; Oct. 10, 1917. 
Tacoma (Wash.) News, May 25. 1918. 
Tampa (Fla.) Times, June 8, 9, 1917. 
Texas Freeman (Houston), Oct. 13, 1917. 
The Daily Herald (Baltimore), Nov. 22, Dec. 17, 1917; Jan. 5, Feb. 16, 

Mar. 8, 16, 23, 27, 30, April 1, 2, 16, 17, 19, 22, May 11, 13, 17, 18, 28, 30, 

June 6, July 8, 31, Aug. 6, 1918. 
The Economic World (New York City), Mar. 9, June 29, 1918. 
The Living Church (Milwaukee), Dec. 22, 1917. 
The Observer (New York City), Oct. 7, 1916. 
The Piedmont (Greenville, S. C), Mar. 16, 1917. 
The Progressive Farmer (Raleigh, N. C), Jan. 27, 1917. 
The Public (New York City), Nov. 30, 1917; May 25, 1918. 
The Standard (Chicago), July 16, 1917; Jan. 26, 1918. 
The Voice of the People (Birmingham), Aug. 5, Dec. 2, 16, 1916; Apr. 22, 

May 19, July 14, 1917. 
The Watchman (New York City), Mar. 1, 1917. 
Topeka (Kas.) Plain Dealer, Dec. 20, 1916; June 29, 1917. 
Toledo (Ohio) Blade, July 12, Aug. 20, 1917. 
Toledo (Ohio) Times, June 14, 1917. 
Trenton (N. J.) State Gazette, Aug. 10, Sept. 24, Oct. 8, Nov. 14, Dec. 3, 

1917. 
Trenton (N. J.) Times, July 28, Aug. 6, 1916: July 6, Sept. 18, 19, 21, 22, 

28, Oct. 13, Dec. 3. 1917; Feb. 13, Mar. 9, Apr. 10, July 11, 1918. 
Troy (N. Y.) Times, July 7, Nov. 1, 1916; Feb. 16, Mar. 28, July 25, 1917. 
Utica (N. Y.) Observer, Nov. 17, 1916; Aug. 22, 1917. 
Utica (N. Y.) Press, Sept. 15, 1917. 
Valdosta (Ga.) Times, July 3, 1917: Jan. 29. 1918. 

Vicksburg (Miss.) Herald, Aug. 19, 1916; July 7, Dec. 7, 1917; July 30, 1918. 
Vicksburg (Miss.) Post, Nov. 9, 1917; July 31, 1918. 
Walla Walla (Wash.) Bulletin. Mar. 13, 1918. 
Washington (D. C.) Bee, Feb. 13, 1915; Nov. 11, 1917; Mar. 23, Aug. 17, 24, 

Sept. 7, 1918. 
Washington (D. C.) Herald, Jan. 23, 1916. 
Washington (D. C.) National Tribune, Nov. 10, 1916. 
Washington (D. C.) Post, Dec. 4. 1916; Feb. 25, 1918. 

Washington (D. C.) Star, Nov. 23, 1916; Apr. 2, July 18, 1917; Sept. 8, 1918. 
Washington (D. C.) Times, Nov. 13. 1916: Sept. 8, 1918. 
Waterbury (Conn.) Democrat, Feb. 8, Oct. 29, 1917. 
Waterbury (Conn.) Republican, July 4, 1917. 
Waterloo (Iowa) Courier, Apr. 3, 1918. 
Watertown (N. Y.) Times. Nov. 17. 1916: Feb. 2, 1917. 
Weekly Witness (New York City). Sept. 6, 1916. 
Wesleyan Christian Advocate (Atlanta, Ga.), Mar. 22, 1917. 



BIBLIOGRAPHY 



183 



Westerly (R. I.) Sun, Nov 8, 1916 

Wilmington (Del.) News, Dec. 1, 1916; Sept. 17 1917. 

Wisconsin Weekly Blade (Madison, Wis.), Jan. 18, Mar. 15 Apr 5 1917 

Women's Wear (New York City), July 12, 13, 21, Oct. 3, 1917; Jan. 23, 

Mar. 27, Aug. 5, 1918. 
Yonkers (N. Y.) Herald, July 12, 1915. 
Youngstown (Ohio) Telegram, Aug. 21, 1917. 
Youngstown (Ohio) Vindicator, Jan. 9, Mar. 23, iyi». 



INDEX 



Adams, Henry, 4, 6. 

Abbott, William, 84. 

African Methodist Episcopal Church, 145. 

Akron, migrations to, 57, 126. 

Alabama: migrations from, 4, 7, 59, 63-74, 
95-9G, 107, 109; causes of migrations, 
14-15, 20-21; Colonization Council, 5; 
efforts to check migrations, 72, 76; ef- 
fects of migrations, 86. 

Albany, migrations to, 56. 

Albert Trostel Co., employment of negro 
labor. 114115. 

Allis Chalmers Co., employment of negro 
labor, 114. 

Altoona, migrations to, 134. 

Aluminum Ore Works, employment of negro 
labor. 100-101. 

Amaca, Tom, 37. 

American Baptist Home Mission Society, 
144. 

American Car & Foundry Co., employment 
of negro labor, 97. 

American Cast Iron Pipe Co., employment 
of negro labor, 93. 

American Federation of Labor, 147-148. 
See also Labor Unions. 

American International Shipbuilding Co., 
employment of negro labor, 139. 

American Steel & Wire Co., employment of 
negro labor, 108-109. 

Andrews, W. T., 172. 

Arkansas: migrations to, 3, 9, 65-68; ef- 
forts to check migrations, 72. 

Armour & Co., employment of negro labor, 
100. 

Armstrong Association. 137-138. 

Atlanta Constitution, 59. 

Atlanta Independent. 162. 

Atlanta Mutual Insurance Co., 64. 

Badham, Henry L., 20. 

Bailey, H. C, 128. 

Banks, Edward T., 128. 

Beloit: migrations to, 110-111; wages in, 

111, 
Beloit News, 159. 
Bibliography, 175-183. 
Birmingham Voice of the People, 160. 
" Bloodv Isle," The. 99. 
Boll weevil, damage to cotton crops by, 14, 

165. ^ . 

Booker T. Washington Social Settlement, 

114. 
Bricklayers, wages of, 16. 86. 
Brickmasons, wages of, 86. 
Brink, Gilbert N., 144. 
Brown Farm, .37. 
Brvant, Lewis T., 141. 
Buffalo, migrations to, 56, 67. 
Building trades, negroes employed in, 12.^. 
Bus boys, wages of, 17. 
Butler. J. H., 75. 
Butchers, wages of, 114. 

Cantonments, construction of. in South, 84. 
Capital, influence on migration of Northern, 

47. 
Carpenters: in Pittsburgh, 122; wages of, 

16. 86. 
Carter. R. A., 146. 



Causes of migrations: Of 1879, 3-6; un- 
employment, 14-15, 59; failure of crops, 
14-15, 105; wages, 14-16, 83; demand for 
labor in North, 14, 17-lS, 28-2'J, 102, 
111; lack of educational facilities. 18- 
19, 81, 83; treatment in courts, 19-20, 
22, 83-85; fee system and street ta-x, 20- 
21; traveling accommodations, 21-22; 
lynchings and mob violence, 18-19, 22, 
79-81, 83, 166-167; prejudice, 24-25, 
83; between cities in North, 117; as 
expressed through the press, 152-174. 

Champion Chemical Co., 128. 

Charlotte Star of Zwn, 161. 

Chart showing extent and trend of migra- 
tions. 71. 

Chattanooga Times, 169. 

Chauflfeurs. wages of. 114. 

Chicago: migrations to, 45, 58, 66-67, 69, 
102; opportunities, 29, 102; increases in 
negro population, 7, 51; housing, 102- 
100; wages, 17, 102-103, 114; welfare 
work, 103. See also East Chicago; 
Illinois. 

Chicago Defender, 29-33. 

Chicago Renting Agents Association, 103. 

Chicago Women's Club, 103. 

Chisholm, J. N., 37. 

Christian Index, 163. 

Churches: effects of migrations on, 86, 
144; aid rendered by, 132, 144 147. 

Cigar factories, emplo>'mcnt of women in. 
129. 

Cincinnati, migrations to, 57, 125. 

Cleveland, migrations to, 57, 126-127. 

Cleveland .Association of Colored Men. 
128. 

Cleveland Welfare Federation, 126. 

Colonization Council, 4-.'">. 

Colored Methodist Episcopal Church, 
146. 

Colored Protective Association, 137. 

Columbia (S. C.) State, 155. 

Columbus, migrations to, 7, 57. 126. 

Commerce and Labor, Secretary of, 99. 

Conferences: to check migrations. 79-81, 
83; in Ohio, 12S; in New Jersey. 140; 
American Federation of Labor, 147.148; 
National League on Urban Conditions' 
among Negroes, 143-144, 149. 

Connecticut: demand for labor, 54; mi- 
grations to. 56. 58, 141-142; wages, 142. 
See also Hartford. 

Connors, Williarh R., 127. 

Convict system, 3-4. 

Cooks. 122. 

Core makers, 129. 

Correspondence, influence of, on migra- 
tions, 34, 69. 

Cotton crop, failures of, 14. 

Council of National Defense, 129. 

Courts, treatment in: cause of migrations, 
10-20, 22, 83-85; effects of migrations 
89. 

Crawford, Anthony, 47. 

Credit ^vstem, 92-93. 

Crop failures, 14-15. 

Cudahv .'^oap Factory, 109. 

Culver, Charles M., 130. 



1S5 



186 



INDEX 



Dallas Express, 162. 

Davis, I. D., 81. 

Dayton, migrations to, 126. 

Discussion, stimulus to migration, 2G. 

District of Columbia, migrations to, 57. 

Diversification of crops, 15. 

Delaware, migrations to, 57, 134. 

Delinquency problem, study of, in Cleve- 
land, IL'T. 

Detroit: opportunities in, 28; negro labor, 
51, 130131; wages, 129; welfare work, 
131-132; housmg, 131-132. See also 
Michigan. 

Detroit Labor News, 151. 

Detroit Employers' Association, 130. 

Dock hands, wages of, 114. 

Domestic service: in North, 17, 50-51, 
122, 129; in South, 16. 

Domination, removal of tear of, 91. 

Dressmaking trade, negro labor in, 50. 

East Chicago: migrations to, 109-110; 
wages, 109-110; housing, 109-110; recre- 
ation facilities, 110; prejudice, 110; re- 
turns to former homes from, 110. See 
also Chicago; Illinois. 

East St. Louis: migrations to, 57, 99101; 
riot of 1917, 98 101; wages, 99; de- 
mand for labor, 99; housing, 100. See 
also St. Louis; Missouri 

East St. Louis Journal, 101. 

Economic policy of South, change in, fol- 
lowing migrations, 87-88. 

Edge, Governor, of New Jersey, 140. 

Educational facilities: lack of, cause of 
migration, 18-19, 81, 83; improvement 
in, 83, 90-91; separation in schools, 96 

Effects on the North: increase in crime 
141; views of the press, 152-174. 

Effects on the South: wages, 86-87, 
change in economic policies, 88-92; labor 
unions, 88, 147-151; lessening of preju 
dice, 88-89; welfare work, 88, 92-94 
increased educational facilities, 88, 90 
91; land tenure and credit systems, 92 
93; views of the press, 152-174. 

Efforts of the North to induce migration 
labor agents, 29, 36 37, 40. 60, 65 
in Milwaukee, 112, 114; in Pittsburgh 
119-120. 

Efforts of the South to check migration 
suppression of labor agents, 38, 72-74 
76-77; through Tuskegee Institute, 81 
82; through the churches, 83; legislation 
72-73, 76; increased wages, 79, 83, 
change in policies, 84-85; improved edu- 
cational facilities, 83, 90-91. 

Eiffin, William T., 141. 

Ellis, J. B., 81. , . r 

Emerson &• Birmingham: employment ot 
negro labor, 106; housing of its labor, 
107 

Epstein, Abraham, 18, 119-120 122-123. 

Erie Railroad, demand of, for labor, 135. 

Factories, negro labor employed in, 51. 

Fairbanks. Morse & Co., employment of 
negro labor. 111. 

Farm hands, wages of, 86. 

Faulks' Manufacturing Co., employment of 
negro labor, 114-115. 

Fee system, 20-21. 

Firemen, wages of, 114. 

Floods as cause of migration, 14. 

Florida: migrations to, 9; migrations from, 
38, 43-44, .^>5. 59, 62-63. 69; causes of 
migration. 14. 22; efforts to check mi- 
gration, 72-73. 

Floyd, William, 54. 



Foundrymen, wages of: in Massachusetts, 

17; in Minnesota, 18; in Chicago, 17, 

114. 
Praily, E. J., Jr., 54. 
Free Sewing Machine Co. : employment of 

negro labor, 106; housing of its labor, 

107. 
Free transportation, 47-48. 

Garment factories, employment of women 
in, 129. 

Gasselli Chemical Co., employment of negro 
labor. 109-110. 

Georgia: migrations from, 38, 59-62, 69, 
109; causes of migrations, 14, 22, 79- 
80, 83; efforts to check migrations, 72- 
76, 79, 80-81, 86; activities of labor 
agents, 60. 

Georgia Enquirer Sun, 154. 

Glass works, employment of negro labor in, 
100. 

Goldsmiths Detinning Co., employment of 
negro labor, 109. 

Gompers, Samuel, 151. See also Ameri- 
can Federation of Labor. 

Great Lakes Naval Training Station, 108. 

Great Northern Drive, The, 30, 33. 

Grimke, Archibald H., 150. 

Harrisburg, migrations to, 57, 134. 

Harris, George W., 150. 

Hartford: migrations to, 56, 58, 141-142; 
wages, 142; housing, 142. 

Hartford Baptist Association, 141. 

Hartford Civic Club, Housing Committee 
of, 142. 

Haynes, George E., 129. 

Hobson & Walkers Brick Yard, employ- 
ment of negro labor, 109. 

Hoffman Manufacturing Co., employment 
of negro labor, 114-115. 

Home Missions Council of Churches of 
Christ in America, 132, 145. 

Housing in St. Louis, 97-98; in East 
St. Louis, 100; in Chicago, 102-106; in 
Rockfotd, 106-107; in Waukegan, 108; 
in East Chicago, 109-1 10; in Beloit, 111; 
in Milwaukee, 117-118; in Pittsburgh, 
120-122; in Cleveland, 126-127; in De- 
troit, 131-132; in Pennsylvania, 135; in 
Philadelphia, 137-139; in New Jersey, 
139-140; in Hartford, 141-142. 

Howe, Frederick C, 53. 

Illinois: migrations to, 7, 58, 68, 108- 
109; housing, 108; wages, 108; preju- 
dice, 109; migrations from, 112. See also 
Chicago; East Chicago. 

Illinois Central Railroad, importation of 
negro labor, 102. 

Immigration Bureau of Social Uplift Work 
for Negroes, 143. 

Indiana, migrations to, 5, 57, 68. 

Influences on migrations: discussion, 26: 
public speaking, 27-28; attitude of 
North, 27; reports of opportunities in 
North, 28-29. 34; -rumors, 28-29, 40, 
78-79; activities of Chicago Defender, 29- 
3,3; activities of labor agents. 29, 36- 
37; correspondence, 34, 40, 69; circula- 
tion of literature and poems. 35, 37. 

Inland Steel Foundry, employment of negro 
labor, 109. 

Interdenominational Ministerial Union, 137. 

International Lead Refining Co., employ- 
ment of negro labor, 109. 

Intersectional migration: number born in 
specified divisions and living in or out 
of these divisions, 10; number living in 
specified divisions, 10; migration north 



INDEX 



187 



to south, south to north and east to west, 
11; net migration eastward and west- 
ward and northward and southward, 12. 

Interstate Mill, employment of negro labor, 
109. . ^. 

Intoxicants, use of, among negroes in Pitts- 
burgh, 124. 

Invasion, rumors of, 28. 

Iowa, migrations from, to Wisconsin, 112. 

Iron and steel industries, employment of 
negro labor in, 113. 

Janitors: in Milwaukee, 114; in Pittsburgh, 

Jersey City, migrations to, oi. 
Johnson, Charles S., -'.i, 128. 
Jones, E. K., l>3, 150. 
Jones, Thomas Jesse, 18, 150. 
Joyce, labor agent, 72. 

Kansas, migrations to, 3-6, 58. 

Kentucky: migrations to, G8; migrations 

from, 95. 
Krolick Co., employment of women by, 

131. 

Labor: — Labor agents: activities of, 29, 36- 
37, 40, CO, 65; from St. Louis, 96; 
from East St. Louis, 99; from Mil- 
waukee, 112; from Pittsburgh, 120; 
from Pennsylvania, 135; efforts of the 
South to suppress, 38, 72-74, 76-77; 
inquiry of Council of National Defense, 
129. 
Labor Unions: prejudice of, 49; change 

m policy, 88, 147-151. 
Suitability of negro labor, llo-llb, 12.S, 
l.SO-13]; demand la North for, 14; 
competition in North, 50-52; compari- 
son of negro with foreign labor, 125; 
wages — see Wages. 
Labor, Department of, 53, 78. 
Lancaster, B. S., 150. 
Lancaster, migrations to, 134. 
Land tenure system, improvement in, 9J- 

93. 
Legal aid to negroes in North, 12<._ 
Legislation: to check migration, 72- (3, 76; 

to aid migrants in North, 141. 
Lindeman-Hoverson Co., A. J., employ- 
ment of negro labor, 113-115. 
Literature, circulation of, influence on mi- 
gration, 35. 
Louisiana: migrations from, 4, 59, 68; 
causes of migrations, 14; Colonization 
Council, 5; efforts to check migrations, 
78. 
Lumber stackers, wages of, 103. 
Lynchings: cause ot migrations, 18-19, 22, 
79-81. S3, 166167; checking of, 94; 
Anthony Crawford, 47; in Georgia, 22, 
79; in Tennessee, 22. 

Machinists: in Detroit, 129; in Massachu- 
setts. 17. 

Macon Telegraph, 156 ., . 

Marks Manufacturing Co., wages paid by, 
103. 

Massachusetts: migrations to, 56; wages in. 

Massacres, cause of migration of 1879, 4. 
Maxwell, William H., 140. 
Mechanics, negro labor in, .51, 
Memphis Commercial Appeal, 154. 
Michigan: migrations to, 58, 68, 129-133; 

migrations from, 112. See also Detroit. 
Middletown, migrations to, 126. 
Migrations: to Kansas, 1879, 3-6; to 

Arkansas and Texas, 1888 and 1889, 



3; of May 15, 1917, 30-33; of August 
15, 1917, 33; chart showing extent and 
trend of. 71; efforts to check — see Ef- 
forts; effects of — see Effects. 

Milwaukee: migrations to, 111-118; efforts 
to secure negro labor, 111-112, 114; 
recreation facilities, 112, 117-118; wages, 
113-115; prejudice, IIG; housing, 117- 
118; migrations from, 117. 

Milwaukee Coke & Gas Co., employment of 
negro labor, 113-115. 

Ministers, aid of, sought to check migra- 
tions, 83. 

Minnesota: migrations from, to Wisconsin, 
112; wages in, 18. 

Mississippi: migrations from, 4, 45, 59, 64- 
68, 95-96, 99, 109, 111; Colonization 
Council, 5; causes of migrations, 14-15, 
20, 24-25; efforts to check migrations, 72, 
76-78, 82-83; effects of migrations, 87, 
89-90. 

Missouri, migrations to, 57. See also St. 
Louis; East St. Louis. 

Missouri Malleable Iron Works, employ- 
ment of negrci labor, 100 

Mob violence, 79-80, 83, 167. See also 
Riots. 

Molders: in Chicago, 17; in Detroit, 129. 

Moldsetters, in Pittsburgh, 122, 

Montgomery Advertiser, 156, 165, 169- 
170. 

Moore, Fred R., 150. 

Morris & Co., employment of negro labor, 
100. 

Moton, Robert R., 1.50151. 

Motormen in Detroit, 28. 

Muckers, wages of, 114. 

Nagel, Charles, 99. 

Nashville Banner. 153. 

National Association for the Advancement 
of Colored People, 98, 128, 137, 151. 

National League on Urban Conditions 
among Negroes: aid to migrations, 54, 
.56; welfare work, 93, 143-144, 149; con- 
ferences, 14 3- 144. 149: in St. Louis, 98; 
in Chicago, 69, 104; in Pittsburgh, 121; 
in Detroit. 131-132; in Philadelphia. 137. 

National Malleable Iron Works, employ- 
ment of negro labor, 113-11.5. 

National organizations, remedies for relief 
by, 143151. 

Nebraska, migrations to, 58. 

Nelson & Co., employment of negro labor, 
100. 

New Orleans Times Picayune, 152. 

Newark. See New Jersey. 

New Jersey: migrations to, 39. 56-57, 139; 
migrations to Newark, .56-.5S; return of 
migrants to South from, 139; housing, 
1.39-140; wages, 140; legislation, 141; 
effects of migrations, 141; welfare work, 
139-141. 

Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock 
Co., 93. 

New York, migrations to, 39, 56, 58, 67- 
68. 

New York New Republic. 157. 

New York News. 54, 164. 

New York Age. 43. 

New York Globe. 159. 

Norfolk Journal and Guide, 160. 

North: opportunities, 17. 28-29; attitude 
toward migrants, 27, 136, 152-174; aids 
to migrants. 143-1.51. 

North Carolina, migrations from, 4-5, 39. 

Northwest, migrations to, 69. 

Northwestern Railroad, need of, for labor, 
108. 



188 



Index 



Gates, W. H., 21. „^ ,„^ 

Ohio: migratioiii, to, 7, 57, 125-1^9; 

housing, 126-127; welfare work, 126- 

128; Lonferer.ces to aid migrants, 128. 
Ohio Federation for Uplift of the Colored 

People, 128. 
Ohio State Council of National Defense, 

12S. 
Ohio State and City Labor Bureau, 128. 
Ohio Charter Commission, 128. 
Oklahoma, migrations to, 9. 
Omaha, migrations to, ij8. 
Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, 158. 

Packing houses, negroes employed in: East 
St. Louis, 100; Chicago, 29, 102; Mil- 
waukee, 114. 

Painters: in Pittsburgh, 122; wages of, 80. 

Parker, Judge T. A., 81. 

Parks, kev., 79. 

I'attern Makers, wages of, 17. 

Pass Riders, 77. „ oo on k- 

I'ennsylvania: migrations to, 'J, o8-.3J, o;j, 
57, 67, 134-139; labor agents from, 135; 
returns to former homes trom, 135. See 
also Philadelphia; Pittsburgli. 

Pennsylvania Railroad Co., demand of, lor 
labor. 09, 135. 

Persuasion, use of, to check migrations, 79. 

Pfister-Vogel Co., employment ot negro 
labor, 114-115, 117. 

Philadelphia: migrations to, 57-i>8, 13u; 
prejudice, 135; attitude of negroes m, 
toward migrants, 130; wages, 130; riots, 
136; housing, 137-139; social work, 137- 
139. Sec also Pennsylvania 

Philadelphia Academy of Medicine, 137. 

Philadelphia Christian Recorder. \M 

Pittsburgh: migrations to, 58, 67, 11 9-1 Jo; 
efforts to secure negro labor, 119-120; 
housing, 120122; social conditions in, 
121. 124-125; prejudice, 123; wages, 18, 
1"'3-124; comparison of negro labor with 
foreign labor, 125. Sec also Penn- 
sylvania. 

Pittsburgh Associated Charities, 121. 

Pittsburgh Dispatch. 100 

Pittsburgh, University of, 121. 

Plankington Packing Co., employment of 
negro labor, 113-115.^ 

Plantation government, S4. 

Poems, circulation of, influence on migra- 
tion, 37. 

Political prosecution in South, 4. 

Porters- in Chicago, 17; in Milwaukee, 
114; in Pittsburgh, 122; wages of, 17, 
114. 

Pottsville, migrations to, 134. 

Poughkeepsie. migrations to. .56. 

Prejudice: Rockford. 107108; Waukegan, 
109; East Chicago, 110; Beloit, 111; 
Milwaukee, 116; Pittsburgh, 123; Phila- 
delphia, 135; cause of migration, 3, 22, 
24-25; of labor unions, 49-51; decrease 
in. 91. 

Press, causes and effects of migrations, as 
expressed through the, 152-174. 

Prisoners, care of discharged, 127. 

Professional men, migration of, 45. 

Public opinion regarding migrations, 152- 
174. 

Public speaking, stimulation of migration 

by, 27-28. 
Puddlers, employment of, in Pittsburgh, 122. 

Railroads; efforts of, to secure negro labor, 
38, 120; wages, 103; in Pittsburgh, 122. 
Raleigh Independent. 161. 
Realty Housing and Investment Co., 127. 



Reeves. Alexander, 72. 

Remedies: in Georgia, 80; increased edu- 
cational iacilities, 83, 90; through W. 
P. Thirkfield, 83; through juskegee Insti- 
tute, 81; conferences, 143-144; through 
churches, 144-147; through labor unions, 
147-151. 

Rents: in Chicago, 105; in Cleveland, 120; 
in New Jersey, 139; in Hartford, 142 
See also Housing. 

Republic Rolling Mill, employment of negro 
labor, 109. 

Returns to South: from East Chicago, 110; 
from Pennsylvania, 135; from New Jcr 
sey, 139. 

Riley, George S., 73. 

Riots: 111 East St. Louis, 98100; in Phila- 
delphia, 130. See also Mob violence. 

Robinson, Joe, 72. 

Robinson, William, 107. 

Rockford: migrations to, 100-108; housing, 
106-107; wages, 106-107; prejudice, 107 
108. 

Rockford Malleable Iron Company: employ 
ment of negro labor, 10(!-1(»7; housing of 
Its labor, lUO-107; wages paid by, 107. 

Rumors, influence on migrations of, 28-29, 
40, 78-79. 

St. Louis: migrations to, 57, 60 67, 95-101; 

separation, !I5; efforts to secure migrants, 

96; wages, 90-97; housing, 97-98. See 

also East St. Louis; Missouri. 
Sanitary conditions: improvements in, 92, 

94; in St. Louis, 98. 
Scarborough, \V. S., 128. 
Schwartz, John E., 37. 
Scott, Em met t J., 150, 
Scroggs, William Oscar, 9. 
Segregation, 95 90 
Servants. See Domestic service. 
Shillady, J. R., 150151. 
Shoemakers, wages of, 114. 
Singleton, "Pap" (Benjamin), 5-6. 
Skilled workers, 122, 129. 
Smith, Bridges, .59. 
Social conditions: in Pittsburgh, 121; in 

Cleveland, 127. See also Welfare work. 
Social Service Commission of the Churches 
^ of Christ. 121. 
Solvay Steel Castings Co., employment of 

negro labor, 114. 
South Carolina: migrations from, 46-47; 

race conference, 172. 
Sotitliwcslcrn Christian Ad~ocatc. 144. 
Springfield, migrations to, 126. 
Springfield Union. 158. 
Stanton, \ . L.. 81. 
Steel industry: demand for labor, 38, 119; 

negroes employed in Pittsburgh, 122. 
Steel molders, wages of, 114. 
Stimulation of migrations. See Influences. 
Street construction workers, wages of, 114. 
Street tax in South, cause of migration, 

20. 
Superstitions of migrants, 40, 4.5-46. 
Swift and Company, employment of negro 

labor, 100. 

Tannery laborers, wages of, 114. 

Teachers, wages of, 18. 

Tennessee: migrations from, 4-5, 95-96, 

99; migrations to, 68; lynchings, 22. 
Tennessee Coal. Iron and Railroad Co., 93. 
Texas: migrations to, 3; migrations from, 

4: Colonization Council, 5. 
Theater ushers, women employed as, 129. 
Thirkfield, Bishop W. P., 83. 
Tifton Gazette. 79. 



INDEX 



189 



Tobacco fields, wages of labor employed in, 
17. 

Trakem Pump Co., employment of negro 
labor. 106. 

Tunnell Construction Co., employment of 
negro labor, 114-115. 

Tuskegee Institute: efforts to check migra- 
tions, 81; conference of, 82. 

Transfer yards, negro labor employed in, 
100. 

Transportation, influence on migration of 
fears of, 28-29. 

Transportation paid by Northern employ- 
ers, 135. 

Traveling accommodations, influence on mi- 
grations, 21-22; effects of migrations, 91. 

Trenton, migrations to, 57. 

Truckers, employment of negro laborers as, 
129. 

" Underground Railroad," 68. 
Unemployment, 14-16, 59. 
Union Central Relief Association, 64. 
United States Production Co., 109. 
Unskilled labor, 122, 129. 

Vicksburg Herald, 153. 
Virginia, migrations from, 39. 

Wages: — South: cause of migrations, 14- 
18, 29, 34, 83, 171; comments of 
press, 84; effects of migrations, 81, 
83 85-87 91 
North: In Pittsburgh, 18, 123-124; in 
Massachusetts 17; in Minnesota, 18; 
in St. Louis, 96-97, 99; in Chicago, 
17, 102-103, 109-110, 114; in Rock- 



ford, 106-107; in Waukegan, 108; in 
Beloit, 111; in Milwaukee, 113-115; 
in Detroit, 129-130; in Philadelphia, 
136; in New Jersey, 140; in Hart- 
ford, 142. 

Walker, .\. P.. 37. 

Walla Walla Bulletin. 160. 

Warehousemen, wages of, 17. 

Waukegan, migrations to, 108-109. 

Waukegan industries, employment of negro 
labor. 108-109. 

Wehr Steel and Machine Shops, employ- 
ment of negro labor, 113. 

Welfare work: National League on Urban 
Conditions among Negroes, 93, 143-144, 
149; in Chicago, 103; in Ohio, 126-128; 
in Detroit, 131; in New Jersey, 139- 
141; in Philadelphia, 137-139; in Hart- 
ford, 141142. 

Wilberforce University, 128. 

Wilder Tannery Co., employment of negro 
labor, 108. 

Wills, J. Walter, 128. 

Wilmington, migrations to, 134. 

Wilson Packing Co., wages paid by, 103. 

Winston, Francis D., 153. 

Wisconsin: migrations to. 110-111; wfages, 
111. See also Milwaukee. 

Women's Health League, 88. 

Woods, J. S., 114. 

Wright, R. R., 171. 

Yard workers, wages of, 17. 

York, migrations to, 134. 

Young Negroes' Progressive Association. 

132. 
Youngstown, migrations to, 57, 126. 



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